TRUMP FANS NEED THEIR “SPECIAL MATH” TO ACTUALLY SEE THEIR PRESIDENT

 

                     … White House official, Peter Navarro, a real Trump loser

 

Trump supporters need the real facts presented in a special way

A writer for The Washington Post was lambasted by the right wing Trump fans after the writer had written an honest column highlighting the horrible economic record of President Trump’s administration.  This writer finally came to the position that these Trump dullards don’t really care about the numbers when they are presented as real numbers.  In other words, if Trump says his numbers are the best, that’s what his supporters will believe.  To disagree means that it’s just Trump’s word against his competition, so his people will only believe Trump!

As an example, 29 million Americans are claiming unemployment; at least 183,000 have died from the coronavirus; and some 20% of small businesses that existed pre-pandemic are closed. But no matter these statistics, no matter the citations from government agencies or private analysts, Trump’s followers refuse to accept that this president’s legacy might be in any way negative. Especially when compared with his predecessors.

After a recent article by this writer stating this info about President Trump’s lackluster economic record, this writer’s inbox was flooded with furious, incredulous emails from thousands of Trump fans. They all knew, in their gut (not their brain), that their favorite leader’s achievements on the economy, public health or any other arena, are the greatest ever.  And that is all because Trump said so.

Well, this same writer decided that the numbers need to be presented in a different way, to make their point.

As an example, let’s try to put the 183,000 Covid-19 deaths in context by noting that cumulative deaths per capita in the United States are double those of Canada, 5 times those of Germany, 20 times those of Australia, 90 times those of South Korea, and so on.

But let’s be real: Lots of Americans don’t care about international comparisons. So here’s a different way to present this same national trauma: The number of lives lost to Covid-19 is roughly equal to the death toll of 60 times the  9/11 attacks in New York and on the Pentagon.  Perhaps, that will sink in….or not.

Shortly after winning the presidency in 2016, Trump took credit for saving approximately 700 jobs at an Indiana plant run by the company, Carrier. The achievement received thousands of adoring right-wing supporters admiration, and is still cited by his promoters as evidence of the president’s economic prowess.  Well, in the new criteria, last week alone, though, 1.6 million Americans newly applied for unemployment benefits. That’s the equivalent of 2,300 Carrier plants.  Will that hit home with these Trumpies?

Then there’s the alleged misuse of taxpayer funds to “pick winners and losers.”  This is something that the right-wing media often applies, only to Democrats, specifically to Barack Obama.  But there are plenty of Trump-era examples to choose from, such as subsidies for failing coal plants, or farmers harmed by Trump’s own trade wars. But let’s use as our case study approach to the record of a single White House official, Peter Navarro, in bungled contracts related to the pandemic response.

According to congressional investigators, Navarro negotiated a contract that resulted in the government overpaying for ventilators by $500 million.  (BTW: That contract was canceled, just last Monday.)  Navarro had also championed a $765 million federal loan to Eastman Kodak to transform it into a drug maker. (This loan has since unraveled and is the subject of a securities investigation.) 

So how many taxpayer dollars was Navarro involved in wasting through these two deals alone?

Well, remember the Solyndra scandal?  That was where this Silicon Valley clean energy startup had collapsed under Obama’s watch, and it left the American taxpayers liable for $535 million in federal guarantees .

Measured in units that should be familiar to those consumers of right-wing news, Navarro’s losses were roughly that of, “two Solyndra’s.”

Last week, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected that the national debt will reach about $22 trillion in the coming fiscal year.  There really no way to demonstrate how huge this issue is today. This means that, for the first time since right after World War II, the debt would eclipse the size of the “overall US 2020 Economy”, it’s that huge. 

For all those fair-weather fiscal hawks who long complained of Obama’s economy, to put it in perspective, the Trump debt in his single term is on track to surpass that under Obama across two full terms.  And remember, Obama took over when the Bush economy was in the ditch and we were in the Great Recession.

Likewise, just for the record, for the one Hillary Clinton’s using “private email scandal”, there are at least, eight (8) senior Trump officials, who have been using their private emails to conduct official business.

For every Obama-era incident involving supposed retaliation against political opponents, there are literally dozens of instances of Trump trying to use the power of his office to punish his perceived enemies, whether through tweets or regulatory actions. This is including the illegal Trump order to block federal funding from going to Democratic run cities.

Die-hard Trump followers have long been fans of their “alternative math”, so perhaps this different approach might prove useful. Or maybe they’ll finally admit that any crisis, failure or scandal, they will all remain acceptable, so long as their man is still president.

A lot will be decided after November 3^rd.

Copyright G. Ater 2020