A day after the stock market dropped 800 points in response to markers for recession, Donald Trump stepped up to his podium in New Hampshire to threaten voters, while lying through his teeth as usual about the state of the economy.
"You have no choice but to vote for me because your 401(k)'s down the tubes, everything's going to be down the tubes," he shouted. "So whether you love me or hate me, you got to vote for me."
That's not any different than sidling up to all of us and saying: "That's a pretty little economy you've got there. It would be a shame if anything happened to it!"
The economy was set on a solid course by President Barack Obama. Trump and his minions came in and gave corporations a big tax cut and rolled back a lot of regulations so they could do whatever they wanted without much in the way of oversight or compliance. This jacked up Wall Street, but the stock market is hardly an indicator of a healthy economy.
At the same time, he's completely fcked us all with his absurd and unnecessary trade war and tariffs, which come straight out of the John Birch playbook from 50 years ago. And in this global economy, those actions will cost far more over a far longer time than a few deregulatory actions.
What Trump is really saying in different words: "Only I can keep the economy going." It's delusional, dangerous and dysfunctional.
As is the threat he echoes at the end of this montage: "A vote for any Democrat in 2020 is a vote for the rise of radical socialism and destruction. the destruction of the American Dream."
His target audience makes more than $100,000, is white, and old. I'll take the radical socialism for $200, Alex, and ditch the dictatorship.
