Day 193: Despite Lack of Any Major Legislation, Trump Wants Total Credit for Economy Anyway
Trump also falsely claims dumpster fire of a White House administration is totally fine.
One of Donald Trump’s favorite things to do — in life, in business and, apparently, in office — is take credit for things that he has nothing to do with.
Take, for example, his tweet this morning.
Trump touts the stock market, “economic numbers” (whatever that means), unemployment and wages. Many of these metrics were “fake news” on the campaign trail. Now, not only are they 100% real, in his mind, he’s the one that Americans should be thanking.
In truth, however, Trump hasn’t signed a single piece of substantial legislation, or even an executive order, since he began his term, much less one of real economic importance. Which means he’s still riding the coattails of Barack Obama.
Imagine if the economy continued to stagnate under Obama and Trump took office when unemployment was at 8% (instead of 4.8%) and the Dow Jones was at 14,000 (instead of 20,000). That would have made it be pretty tough for things to be humming after just six months for Trump, especially considering the lack of Trump’s signature on anything of note. But he ignores that. He instead insists on standing on Obama’s shoulders and calling himself tall.
As for the border being secure? Not much has changed on that front either, unless you count the increased deportation of working, tax-paying, non-criminal individuals, who are being dragged from their citizen families to countries they haven’t seen in over a decade as securing the borders. Other than that, Trump’s big surge of hiring border patrol and ICE workers doesn’t even take effect until 2018.
Yes, Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, but literally all he had to do was pick a name from any list and Senate Republicans were going to confirm that person quickly, even if that meant changing long-tenured Senate rules to do it.
He finally claims, “No WH chaos!” Sure thing. Press Secretary Sean Spicer was ousted earlier this month. Chief of Staff Reince Priebus got the axe last week. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ job is in Trump’s crosshairs. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is frustrated with limitations placed on him and may be out soon as well. The new White House Communications Director, Anthony Scaramucci, has referred to Senior Counselor Steve Bannon’s desire to perform autofellatio after going on a tirade against the White House staff, threatening to fire every single one of them. The administration can’t stop clashing with members of Congress, including many Republicans, on everything from health care to the Russia probe to staffing concerns.
Other than in Trump’s own mind, the White House is an unmitigated disaster.
193 days in, 1269 to go
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