The article is updated with Erick Erickson’s take. He’s very negative about Donald Trump’s ideas, but I thought it necessary to present both sides from Republicans. I still stick with President Trump on this, but there are other opinions.
The Biden economy was without substance and propped up by government spending. Employment was based on people here illegally and government workers, who produce nothing. Growth was based on government contracts. President Trump is trying to rebuild the economy for the working man led by the private engine, not government subsidies.
Americans were drunk on government spending and now we’re in rehab.
Government spending under Biden should never have been counted as GDP.
For everyone upset about the stock market, the Dow is down 1.1% for the year and the S&P 500 is down 4.3%.
It’s not a crash. It’s a downturn.
When Reagan stepped in, the market dropped about 10%, and the boom came.
For the first time in 15 months, jobs were given to more native-born workers than foreign workers. I’m sticking with Trump – short term misery for long term gains.
UPDATE
Erick Erickson isn’t as optimistic. Not to be a naysayer, but it is the other side of what’s happening.
This is pain due to President Trump transforming the American economy. This is very similar to talking points offered by Joe Biden’s base in 2021 as inflation began to rear its head. Even now, some of Trump’s supporters are attacking corporations and blaming them, much as the Biden team blamed “shrinkflation” on corporations.
Crediting Donald Trump “with the balls” to crater people’s 401(K) investments as “the pain that comes from real change” is a terrible talking point. Claiming that the working class has been left behind and a market correction helps the working class is nonsensical. A great deal of the working class is also an investor class.
In 2007, Republicans raised the red flag about Barack Obama claiming he would “transform this nation.” Before Election Day in 2008, Obama said, “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.” Now, MAGA is claiming to transform the American economy fundamentally and realign it away from a globally integrated economy.
That may sound good, but the reality is higher costs for Americans and fewer tariff winners than losers. And Americans reacted badly to Barack Obama’s attempt to transform America fundamentally. The 2010 midterms were brutal for his incumbent party.
Republicans risk doing what Democrats did in the last four years — get so focused on everything else that they forget it is the economy stupid.
President Trump is doing a lot of good. However, it risks being undone if his Administration cannot avoid a prolonged recession. Whether his supporters blame him or not, there are very real odds the American public, which opposes tariffs generally, will see tariffs as the precursor to a recession. Trump and tariffs are the only two big changes the country has made in the past few months.
Despite many rationalizations and apologetics that what is happening is a good thing and a necessary readjustment, if the pain lasts too long, do not expect voters to appreciate it. After all, “don’t rely on the markets as an indicator of economic health” was a phrase repeatedly uttered by the Biden Administration as inflation skyrocketed.
…
This will be mitigated by Congress passing his tax plan swiftly and making tax cuts permanent. It would provide some stability and incentivize investments.
Tax cuts arguably should have come before the tariffs, just like in the first Trump administration.
In the meantime, praising Donald Trump for a stock market slump is not a winning message to the voters who just traded in Joe Biden for Trump 2.0. The market has not just been down for a day. It has been sliding down for several weeks now.
On the other hand, Democrats yesterday spent all day ignoring the markets and defending a Hamas sympathizer set for deportation by the Trump Administration. So their priorities right now are not compatible with an attempt to win the midterms at the moment.
Subscribe to the Daily Newsletter
wpDiscuz
