The Big Beautiful Stink
Trump sure builds 'em
Well. He's back. Pissed as hell and telling FOX its pollster "STINKS".
When he was presented with a survey on how Americans feel about the economy, he denied it was real.
“Fox polling, I have to tell you, I’ve told you before, the worst polling I’ve ever had, it’s always, I mean, during the election, they had me winning by a little bit, not by a massive amount,” he said. “And Fox polling, I’ve told Rupert Murdoch, go get yourself a new pollster, because he stinks, and this is for years now.”
President Harry Truman had a sign on his desk that said, "The Buck Stops Here." He acknowledged his responsibility for everything that happened under his watch.
Trump has nothing on his desk but a Diet Coke button. He takes responsibility for nothing at all. He blames everything on everyone else. And then he steals their credit, when things that have nothing to do with him go right.
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Trump was in the middle of his usual brag about bringing manufacturing jobs back to America on FOX Thursday, when host Martha Macullum, who has heard this many times before, interrupted him to ask exactly WHEN this was going to happen.
WHEN, exactly, were Americans going to start to enjoy the "booming economy" he promised would begin on "day one"?
“When do you think people are going to feel that?” she asked. “Because we do see polling that doesn’t poll well on the economy. Recent Fox polling said 52 percent say the economy is worse under this administration, you’ve got unemployment at the highest rate in four years. Groceries made a big jump in the last term. ... You’re looking forward with these plans that you just talked about. When will people feel that?”
Trump replied, “Well, when the factories start opening. I mean, right now we’re building them.”
REALLY? Like the Hyundai plant that was shut down during the ICE raid a couple of weeks ago? Leading South Korea to cancel 22 more planned projects - and causing other nations around the world to reconsider THEIR projects?
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Trump claimed that he has already secured $17 trillion in investments for the country this term. A ridiculous number. One trillion dollars is 1,000 BILLION.
South Korea has pledged $350 billion in investments over the next few years of Trump's term, and then added $160 billion more before Trump put their project managers and workers LITERALLY in chains for days.
The European Union offered Trump $600 billion in investments spread over his remaining term as part of their trade agreement, too. Trump bragged to news sources that they had made him a GIFT of actual money, to spend "anyway he liked". NO. The EU just figured that their companies would be making around $600 billion in business investments in USA over the next 3 years.
It was not a GIFT, and it was not to HIM.
If you add up ALL the offers of business investments, they may add up to a few trillion dollars. But nowhere near $17 trillion. And those are NOT "secured" fundings, but only suggested FUTURE fundings. The investments will not coming from the government, but from private business in their countries, which DECIDE to build and invest in America over the next few years.
That is, if Trump does not do something erratic like having all their personnel rounded up and thrown into prison.
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But Trump is just ignoring all that. He told Martha Macullum that we will see the economy turn around when his tariffs “kick in probably in a year or so.”
Wait. What about the TRILLIONS AND TRILLIONS of dollars he says are already "flowing in" to our treasury from other countries in tariffs? Forbes says we have taken in, not trillions, but only $159 BILLION as of September. And pretty much all of that came, not from the countries themselves, but from US, the American businesses and consumers who bought those countries' products.
And those tariffs are having some unintended consequences. For instance - we cannot grow coffee in America. Our soil and climate are not right. So the South American countries that DO grow it are now avoiding Trump's tariffs by selling it to CHINA. Chinese people have developed a taste for it.
The result? Less coffee here. So higher prices. People are skipping take-out coffee and are just bringing a travel mug from home. The ripples are spreading out and affecting restaurant businesses, and those people's jobs. And those employees are buying less, and the restaurants are cutting back on more jobs, and not building new stores, or even shutting down. Everything is connected.
One other thing. Tariffs on foreign products are meant to make them more expensive than American products, to encourage us to buy American products instead. But we cannot grow coffee here. So why the hell is there a tariff on it??? It just makes the only coffee available more expensive for US!
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Word is out this morning that South Korea has talked Hyundai into going back to that raided Georgia plant. It is going to spend an additional $2.7 billion to expand the plant to produce 500,000 vehicles a year.
Good paying jobs for Americans. But they won't get those jobs until halfway through 2026. The plant will be delayed for an additional 3 months thanks to the raid.
Trump nearly blew it. In a shocking blunder after the raid, he shrugged and said they shouldn't have been here illegally. BUT THEY WERE HERE LEGALLY. He didn't bother to even check before he opened his mouth.
And THEN he held up the planes they sent to rescue their workers, for two days, while he pleaded for them to stay, and pleaded with South Korea not to cancel the 21 OTHER contracts their businesses had with America.
So he got a reprieve from South Korea. But probably only because he threatened them with more crippling tariffs. Trump no longer deals. He just threatens.
He just bullies, blusters and brags.
And then he lies about the "big beautiful" numbers that are only in his head.
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But now, other countries are looking at Russia and China, and realizing Trump's threats are empty. He may send the Navy after little speedboats or Federal officers to round up workers at a construction site, but when Putin or Xi ignore his deadlines, he just backs right down and sets a new deadline.
The world has realized that no deal Trump makes is worth the paper it is written on. They cannot trust him, and they cannot trust America.
And that distrust will linger LONG after Trump is gone. Because the world saw how Biden's restoration to "normalcy" was only temporary. As soon as Trump came back in, he upended everything all over again. The world now sees that America is only as trustworthy as whatever president is in power. Only as strong as its weakest link. Only as credible and reliable as Donald J Trump.
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FOX screenshot courtesy The Daily Beast
Trump photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images 2018
