Among the outrages committed by Trump during his 4 year infestation of the WH is the damage he did to the US’s global standing.  Not only did he turn against centuries-long alliances and quit global cooperation (the WHO, Paris Climate Accord, Iranian nuclear deal), he ceded global trade positions to China.  Oh, he talked tough and launched a disastrous trade war, but the real damage he did was allowing China to get a giant leg up on global trade, diplomacy, and even defense.   When Trump was boasting about his “America First” policy, other countries were moving into the vacuum and moving quickly.  After a smaller increase last year due to the pandemic, China announced today an increase in its defense budget of 6.8% as it modernizes and increases its military capabilities.  Xi Jinping, facing no real political opposition, has jumped into the void created by Trump’s bungling cementing not only China’s dominance, but also his own.

Xi saw Trump’s bungling as an opportunity for China, and he took it.  He let Trump think he did the “biggest deal ever”, when, in fact, he pantsed him in front of the entire world, and the only people who didn’t see it were MAGHats and Lindsey Graham.  His trade war and “deal” with China used his crack negotiating skills – he gave China everything it wanted.  The Brookings Institute put it best just before the 2020 election:

“Despite Trump’s claim that “trade wars are good, and easy to win,” the ultimate results of the phase one trade deal between China and the United States — and the trade war that preceded it — have significantly hurt the American economy without solving the underlying economic concerns that the trade war was meant to resolve. The effects of the trade war go beyond economics, though. Trump’s prioritization on the trade deal and de-prioritization of all other dimensions of the relationship produced a more permissive environment for China to advance its interests abroad and oppress its own people at home, secure in the knowledge that American responses would be muted by a president who was reluctant to risk losing the deal.”

Trump’s paper tiger presidency allowed bad actors like Iran, Russian, and China to actually do the opposite of what he boasted would happen.  These countries, without the vigilance of the allies lead by the US to hold them to account, increased their global dominance.  Russia has expanded its cyber operations targeting all global democracies, China stepped into the void to dominate Pacific trade, and Iran is once again expanding its nuclear capability.  Worse, our own allies have backed away from us, and Biden’s aggressive re-engagement has not calmed fears about who the US will elect in 2024 and simply return to Trumpism.  This problem is not going away any time soon, especially with a Senate that can’t even pass a bill that will provide some relief to our long haul misery caused by Trump’s incompetence that was magnified by politicians terrified of his violent supporters.  Remarkably, it seems that Trump’s greatest accomplishment was creating an environment in the US toxic enough to enable domestic terrorism to rise from the shadows out into the light of day for the entire world to witness.  Domestic terrorists espousing fascist ideology and violence doesn’t give our allies confidence in our long term viability and most certainly takes away our moral authority as the biggest proponent of democracy around the world.

The damage Trump did will be long lasting and far reaching.  Republicans, trying to protect their own hides, refuse to acknowledge the problem, and this problem can’t be fixed with more executive orders and the efforts of only one party.  I’m not hopeful.

US manufacturing is now at a ten year low, as reported by the The Institute for Supply Management, with its index dropping to 47.2 in December.  Anything below an index of 50 signals a manufacturing segment contraction.  So with the trade wars that have destroyed thousands of jobs, wrecked export markets for many industries, and saddled the manufacturing industries with dozens of tariffs, Trump’s “winning ” strategy is actually…not.

Non-Trumpists know that Trump is a complete disaster, morally bankrupt, narcissistic, and a tyrant.  Sycophants ignore all that and worst of all, support his trade and economic policies which are a disaster for businesses large and small, especially farmers.  His trade war with the world, especially China, is destroying US markets at a scale virtually never seen in modern US history.  Farmers are feeling much of the pain inflicted on US business with their revenue from exports to China dropping by more than half, from $19.5 billion to $9.2 billion in 2018.  Farm bankruptcies have increased 13% since 2018 alone.  The US lobster industry has been virtually destroyed with Canada taking almost all of US Chinese export market share, generating a boom to its lobster fisherman.  US exports are down 84% since Trump imposed the tariffs.

Trump’s idiotic trade was is doing irreparable damage to US export markets all while he sycophants in red MAGA hats scream about scary dark skinned people and cheer on tax cuts for billionaires while being unable to pay their electric bill.  The brainwashing is complete, but it seems that farmers are waking up to a cold grey dawn of reality.

Trumpists can never defend their support of the criminal sitting in the Oval Office without bringing up 2 subjects: 1) What about Hillary, and 2) The economy is booming.  The problem is that both answers are bullshit.  The whole Hillary thing is a simple dodge that Trump and his sycophants use on a daily basis to deflect attention away from the damage he is inflicting with the deepening constitutional crisis of his own making; but what about the economy?  True, the stock market (at least the S&P) touched an all time high on Friday, a whopping $2.00 over the previous high attained in January of this year.  The Dow remains about $1,000 below its January high.  Never hesitant to give himself credit for something, Trump tweeted this just as John McCain passed away:

Trump’s narcissistic personality disorder aside, is the economy really booming?  The answer depends on where you actually sit.  For those who received unnecessary tax cuts that are now overheating the economy, exploding the national debt, and kicking off inflation, yes, they are receiving a windfall that they are using for stock buybacks and acquiring more personal goods.  For those who are on the other end, not so much.  Wages have been stagnated since Reagan.  42% of Americans earn below $15 per hour.  One third of Americans earn less than $12.  The minimum wage has stagnated at $7.25 since 2009.  Wages are only rising at 2.9% per year, and inflation is now outpacing increases in wages.  Interest rates are rising to keep the economy from overheating further, and debt rates are increasing because of the supply of more and more federal debt.  To make matters worse, healthcare costs are rising 20% this year, credit card debt is now over $1 trillion, and student loan debt is burdening a huge part of the next generation of Americans.

In short, the economy is NOT booming for working classes of Americans.  The income gap is widening, and anger is increasing as Republicans in Congress and state houses step up their efforts to destroy the healthcare system, defund public schools, refuse to raise the minimum wage, keep the homeless in the streets, refuse to fund infrastructure, refuse to fix our voting system, ignore Russian interference in our lives, ignore the opioid crisis, refuse to reform the immigration system, jail children on the border, and pile on the national debt by spending over $700 billion a year on defense (not counting military retirement and healthcare) while slashing taxes. Pile on top of that Trump’s idiotic trade war based on lies that’s destroying jobs and kicking off hyper-inflation is some sectors, and you have a volatile combination that is unsustainable.

Conservative leaders all over the country pledging fealty to His Orangeness do so at their own peril.  However, we can begin to fix this only if normal people show up at the polls and vote.  If we do that, then we can declare an end to this long national nightmare and rebuild our much damaged society.

There is a place for anger, and THIS is it.

There are no factories in the US that make televisions any more.  There is one factory, Element Electronics, that assembles mass market televisions from imported Chinese parts, but that will come to a grinding halt in October.  The company simply cannot survive in Trump’s trade war where their made in China parts are now being heavily taxed.  During the campaign he complained that “we don’t make televisions in the US anymore”;  well, now we don’t even assemble them in the US.  Once closed down, it is very difficult for a company to come back on line.

All of this winning is sure doing a lot of damage.

Yet another GOP leader has stepped up, this time in a strong way.  Christie Todd Whitman, former EPA administrator under and former governor of New Jersey.  In a LA Times op-ed this morning, Whitman called for other Republican leaders to call enough and demand Trump step down.  Fat chance yet, but cracks in the wall are getting bigger.

There is a place for anger, and THIS is it.