Donald Trump congratulated himself Saturday on strong economic indicators continuing, which he believes will handily carry him into a second term of office.
Our Country is the envy of the World. Thank you, Mr. President! https://t.co/2h8mvu16YX
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 6, 2019
You may recall Larry Kudlow admitting to Chris Wallace on Fox News that Trump didn’t understand how tariffs work. That episode has been forgotten and Kudlow is chirping happily about how great everything is, as this mis-administration takes credit for an economic upturn which began way before Trump ever set foot in the Oval Office and despite his mangling of trade deals. The Hill:
Top White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Friday that the recent stock rally and strong jobs report proved that Trump’s policies have fueled “a very strong prosperity cycle.”
“We have very good pro-growth policies, low taxes, deregulation, opening energy, trade reform,” Kudlow said on Bloomberg TV. “I think the incentives of our supply-side policies are working.”
All of this is good news for an incumbent president.
As GOP strategist Ford O’Connell wrote in The Hill this week, the power of incumbency is already a huge predictor. Only a handful of presidents running for reelection have lost since 1900. The number who have lost while managing a strong economy are fewer.
It’s no wonder Trump was in a good mood on Friday.
Trump’s in a terrific mood, not only because of the economy, but because Democrats are savaging the one candidate Trump fears, Joe Biden. Mitch McConnell loves this development as well.
The White House clearly fears former Vice President Joe Biden, a centrist seen as a strong potential nominee in the swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, which Trump took from Democrats in 2016.
A Biden campaign collapse would raise the likelihood that the Democratic Party will nominate a more progressive standard-bearer, something Republicans are openly hoping for. Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) think a Democratic candidate openly backing “Medicare for All” and the Green New Deal climate change plan will turn off voters in a general election.
Similarly, they are delighted to see Democrats talking about providing health care to immigrants who are in the country illegally, seeing it as an issue that will motivate Trump voters to go to the polls and one that could lose Democrats the support of independents.
Here’s his latest tweet on Joe Biden, who is clearly rattling his cage for some reason.
Joe Biden is a reclamation project. Some things are just not salvageable. China and other countries that ripped us off for years are begging for him. He deserted our military, our law enforcement and our healthcare. Added more debt than all other Presidents combined. Won’t win!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 6, 2019
Trump fears Biden because he was part of the immensely successful Obama administration. It’s good to see Trump rattled by Biden. Without Biden, this blithering idiot in the White House, who just this past week horrendously embarrassed himself on two occasions, when he thought “western liberalism” referred to Democrats in California and then eclipsed that comment by blabbering about airports during the revolutionary war, is set for reelection — he believes. And he could be right. Historical precedent is clear that an incumbent with a strong economy gets reelected, as sure as the swallows return to Capistrano. Meanwhile, we had tanks in the streets of the capital Thursday and we have concentration camps at the southern border.
This is an immensely sobering time in our history. It’s worth noting again that if the Democrats screw up this election and we have four more years of Trump, we will cement the loss of American leadership in the world. Our alliances have been tested to the breaking point. Our relationship with Germany has been altered, probably permanently, under Trump and our relationship with France is sorely taxed. It will be a miracle if relations with Canada and Mexico restabilize under future leadership. It’s too early to know what will happen with China, but certainly the prognosis is not good.
If we defeat Trump now, we will have the excuse that America temporarily lost its way, that the propaganda machine of Fox had an effect that was too pernicious, that a candidate with a high profile from a television show won on name recognition — all kinds of things can be argued. But if Trump gets reelected, then the statement to the world will be much different. The statement will be this is who America is. A loud mouthed, racist buffoon reflects who we really are. And the economy will crater at some point during a second term, due to Trump’s idiocy with tariffs, and I don’t even want to speculate what will happen in the Middle East or elsewhere under the inept stewardship of Putin’s useful idiot.
We need to nip this in the bud now, and I think we need to carefully consider who we nominate as a candidate. There’s no argument that Joe Biden is not a perfect candidate. We don’t need a perfect candidate. We need somebody who can beat Donald Trump. Now is not the time to push the envelope on the perfect progressive agenda. Now is the time to save the country. If Trump fears Biden, let’s throw Biden at him.
These are not normal times. Some are blathering on about the policies and positions of the candidates as if this is a normal election. Getting rid of trump, and as many republican as we can, is #1. That is it.
I can’t agree more. This election is not about policies. This election is about getting rid of this freak show and getting normal governance returned to the country. If we don’t do that now, I don’t want to even think about what 2024 is going to look like.
Yep. 100% with you on this.
Republicans only think they are more likely to beat a Progressive…they forget that Progressive policies are favored by a majority. Their boy ran on some of them..
Any Democrat is going to do a better job than Trump. That’s a no brainer. My thought is merely that a lot of the independents and people who are disillusioned with Trump may not favor somebody they think is too progressive and we need to get that middle ground voter. I could be wrong.
Great article.
Trump must be Impeached Now, Speaker Pelosi.
The problem with the economy is that it takes a while for corrosive forces to manifest. The Chinese tariffs are horrendous, but the fall out from them hasn’t taken place and I frankly don’t know when it will. Trump conceivably could coast through to reelection under the banner of a healthy economy — my God, I don’t think I can stand it.
The farmers aren’t getting the kind of help they were led to expect. But most of them haven’t yet turned on the GOP-T as they’ll need to do for Dems to get a solid win.
Pelosi won’t see this, and after the third or fourth time you post it, it reads like spam.