Nuts: MAGA Republicans Believe That Trump’s Presidency Ended In February 2020
MAGA Republicans like to argue that we should evaluate Trump’s record as president as of February 2020. They also prefer to pretend that the last eleven disastrous months of Trump’s presidency never happened. Did Trump’s presidency end eleven months early? Was everything awesome in February 2020? Does Trump deserve any credit for the low unemployment rate at that time? Let’s take a look at the record.
MAGA Republicans never mention that unemployment peaked at 10% in early 2009 during the Bush recession. By the time, Obama left office, unemployment had been reduced to 4.7%. The economy had created jobs for a then record 75 consecutive months.
Unemployment was 3.5% in February 2020. However, the record indicates that most of the drop in the unemployment rate since the end of the Bush recession occurred during the Obama presidency. Economists credit the 2009 Recovery Act for the economic growth during the Obama years. Only three Republicans voted for the 2009 Recovery Act. Many Republicans openly said that they wanted Obama to fail so they could regain power.
Trump’s supporters like to brag that black unemployment hit a record low in early 2020. Let’s put that into its proper historical context. Obama reduced black unemployment from 16.6% to 7.4%. Black unemployment declined to 6% by February 2020. Once again, most of the reduction occurred before Trump took office.
Trump’s presidency didn’t end in February 2020. Black unemployment was 9.8% when Trump left office. Since Biden has taken office, black unemployment is now at a record low.
In any event, let’s now give Trump every benefit of the doubt and imagine that his presidency ended eleven months early. Trump promised that his 2017 tax cuts would:
- Deliver a $4,000 pay raise to the middle class;
- Pay for themselves;
- Kick off an investment boom;
- Generate 6% GDP growth.
- Generate more job growth.
None of this happened.
- Even before the pandemic, middle class incomes rose a paltry 1% adjusted for inflation;
- The deficit increased from $585 billion to $1 trillion; Trump added $4.7 trillion to the national debt before the pandemic.
3. 85% of the tax cuts were spent on dividends and stock buybacks; there was no investment boom;
4. GDP growth was no different than it was under Obama; and
5. Job growth declined by 20%.
By Trump’s own criteria, the 2017 tax cuts were a failure.
Our MAGA Republican friends contend that Trump deserves no blame for all of the bad things that occurred in the U.S. after the pandemic hit in March 2020. They ignore his failed response to the pandemic. While Trump didn’t cause the pandemic, his performance made everything worse. In 2020, the U.S had the worst economic outcome of any first world country due to Trump’s incompetence.
MAGA Republicans also tend to ignore the numerous unhinged statements that Trump made about the pandemic. Here are the highlights or lowlights:
January 24:
“China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!”
February 7:
“I just spoke to President Xi last night, and, you know, we’re working on the — the problem, the virus. It’s a — it’s a very tough situation. But I think he’s going to handle it. I think he’s handled it really well.”
February 10:
“I think China is very, you know, professionally run in the sense that they have everything under control. I really believe they are going to have it under control fairly soon.”
February 27:
“It’s going to disappear one day, it’s like a miracle.”
March 10:
“It will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.”
March 13:
“I don’t take responsibility at all.”
April 23:
“The virus dies quickest in sunlight…. I said supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way. I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning?”
August 20:
“We’re in the “closing moments of the pandemic.”
“The coronavirus crisis is “nearing the final turn.”
Trump’s own actions are a good example of his failed response to the pandemic. The former TV reality star couldn’t protect himself and his own followers from the virus.
Trump held a super spreader event at the White House on September 26 to mark the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. At least 37 cases of the coronavirus were confirmed within 12 days after Barrett’s nomination event on September 26.
Both Donald Trump and Melania tested positive after this event. The former indicted, twice impeached president almost died. When Trump was admitted to Walter Reed Hospital with Covid symptoms, , Mark Meadows, his then chief of staff, feared that the orange hued mogul might die.
Trump not only got himself sick, he also infected his own die hard followers. Stanford University scientists found that the Trump rallies ultimately resulted in more than 30,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19. They also concluded that the rallies likely led to more than 700 deaths, even including people who didn’t attend the rallies.
Just to show how much of an outlier the U.S. was from better performing First World, developed countries, here are covid-19 deaths per million people (adjusted for population) as of December 2020:
Australia: 35
South Korea: 12
Norway: 74
New Zealand: 5
Taiwan: 0.3
U.S.: 948
According to a study from The Lancet, Trump’s incompetence caused over 200,000 Americans to have unnecessarily perished to this dreaded disease. The U.S. had the worst response to the pandemic of the First World industrialized countries.
Trump’s failure to mitigate the virus wrecked the good economy he inherited from President Obama. When Trump was in office, the unemployment rate increased from 4.7% to 6.7%, 12 million Americans lost insurance, 8 million Americans fell into poverty and the annual deficit increased from $585 billion to $3.1 trillion.
In 2020, the U.S. economy lost a net 10 million jobs. Weekly unemployment claims since March 2020 exceeded the worst week of the 2008–09 recession. Trump left office after nearly 50 straight weeks of the worst job losses in American history. Trump was the first president since the Great Depression to leave office with fewer jobs in the country than when he was inaugurated.
Trump lost the 2020 election largely due to his failed response to the pandemic. Even though Trump’s closest advisors told him that he had lost, he persisted in trying to steal the election. He filed — and lost — numerous frivolous lawsuits aimed at overturning the election. In addition, Trump filed several slates of fraudulent electors. He also failed in an attempt to convince Mike Pence to steal the election.
After all of these nefarious schemes failed, Trump incited a mob of his unhinged followers to attack the U.S. Capitol to stop the certification of the election. He even encouraged the mob to murder his vice president.
A bipartisan Senate report found that at least seven people died in connection with the January 6 attack. About 140 police officers — 73 from the Capitol Police and 65 from the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington — were injured, the departments have said.
When Trump “left office, the murder rate was higher, drug overdose deaths had increased, and the abortion rate had gone up for the first time in decades. America was more bitterly divided, and deficits increased each year of his presidency. His early Covid lies helped fuel an immense amount of confusion and almost certainly cost American lives. And his entire sorry term was capped by a violent insurrection fueled by an avalanche of lies.” David French.
Trump and the Republican Party paid a high political price for this catastrophe. Trump was the first president since Herbert Hoover to preside over the loss of the White House, the House and the Senate in a single term.
Despite this disastrous presidency, Trump is running for a second term and is the GOP frontrunner. We must all be vigilant in making sure that Trump makes history by losing a second consecutive presidential election. It’s America or Trump in 2024. Democracy and freedom are at stake. Now let’s get it done!
P.S. — You’re going to want to save this post for when Trump and his propaganda machine try to rewrite history.