26 thoughts on “Trump’s Style”

  1. “This model is antithetical to representative government, and does nothing but throw sand in the gears. ”

    Right–it’s far better to let the Democrats do whatever they want and fundraise against them. Who needs cutting back on regulations, originalist judges, or a booming economy.

    This article’s nothing but another lame NeverTrumper jeremiad. Look: “Nothing — and I repeat, nothing — has been done to address the appalling national debt.” Did this yahoo complain about Obama’s ten trillion dollar addition to it? Or that Ronald Reagan didn’t reduce the debt either?

    1. The debt is horrendous. Everyone in congress, and Trump, deserve criticism here. The House does control the purse strings though and neither Paul Ryan or Nancy Pelosi want(ed) to cut spending.

      Contrary to what the media keeps saying, Trump’s tax cuts are not driving the deficit. We have record high tax revenue. What is driving the deficit, debt payments. Since we can’t cut debt payments, we need to cut spending. And where is our media during all of this? Spinning deceits rather than informing the public about serious problems.

      1. And where is our media during all of this?

        Pimping the Green New Deal which will only cost another 93 trillion dollars.

      2. –wodun
        March 1, 2019 At 4:54 PM
        The debt is horrendous. Everyone in congress, and Trump, deserve criticism here. The House does control the purse strings though and neither Paul Ryan or Nancy Pelosi want(ed) to cut spending.–

        Trump deserves no criticism. The debt is fully the responsibility of Congress [and the public that voted for them and to have the debt].
        Also the Fed is raising interest rates [which ok, but they were raising them too quickly- and Trump told them they making a mistake].

        1. From what I understand, much of the federal debt taken on in the last 10 years or more (which is over half the total debt) was financed in short term instruments. Instead of locking in historically low interest rates, we’re facing having to pay higher interest rates on billions in debt. The portion of the federal budget needed to pay the interest is already several hundred billion dollars and rising sharply. Higher interest rates will only make things worse, and the debt is increasing by about a trillion dollars a year.

          1. What would Obama’s deficits looked like if the independent FED hadn’t kept interest rates low for him?

        2. Trump proposes a budget and then congress goes to work. IIRC, he has proposed some cuts, which congress ignored but he has also proposed increases, which congress funded.

          Rand Paul had the best budget proposal with the penny pincher. It is relatively painless compared with the current course and the decisions that will have to be made.

    2. I missed the part where I defended Democrats. I just wish that Trump was less idiotic, occasionally. I wish the same of Elon. But Trump says stupid things every effing day.

      1. I missed the part where he suggested you defended Democrats. To wit: This article’s nothing but another lame NeverTrumper jeremiad. Did you write the article?

  2. It is nice to see Zarmi demonstrating his commitment to saving the environment by recycling his op-ed. How many times has he got paid for writing the same thing?

    Trump’s demeanor is situational. His treats his political opponents differently in the context of a political confrontation than he does during negotiations. Whether or not he is mean or nice to people makes no difference because he gets criticized either way. Just look at the talking head responses to NK.

    This is also true for “The Resistance”. Trump isn’t to blame for how the Democrats act and they would treat any other Republican the exact same way. Anyone writer who doesn’t get this by now needs to find something they actually know about to opine on.

    Having troops in Iraq to respond to things like the rise of ISIS is the only reason they should be there. Isn’t this what the establishment has maintained? Yes, Iran is upset and their proxies in Iraq are upset. Does Zarmi not know what is going on over there? We were already using Iraq to stage efforts in Syria to fight ISIS.

    This is another example of criticism no matter what Trump does. Trump wants to leave Syria, someplace congress never voted for us to go and a place Obama said we wouldn’t be fighting proxy wars or have boots on the ground. Trump gets criticized, some of it very good criticism. Trump wants to stay in Iraq and gets criticized by the same people who criticize him for wanting to get out of Syria.

  3. I disagree with a lot of things Trump did. I think the tax cut was idiotic. Both the corporate tax cut and the income tax cut.

    The corporate tax cut plus the stupid rules on share buybacks meant that corporations decreased spending on investments to do dividends or, even worse, stock buybacks. Then look at how companies like Apple structured their stock buyback programs. They loaded themselves on debt, courtesy of the low interest rates granted by the Fed, against money which is stashed abroad. What it means, once you take into account the other corporations as well, is that the level of corporate debt in the US is now huge. It will likely be the cause of the next global financial crisis. Also, instead of the debt being used to fund business expansions or R&D, it is being used to pad the pockets of corporate investors. Which are a very limited section of the US population.

    Salaries have either stayed flat or decreased in real terms. This basically means that people have also gorged themselves on debt to sustain the same level of consumption. This was one of the causes of the last economic crisis, namely housing debt, this time we might see other similar bubbles bursting as well.

    If I was Trump I would have granted exemptions for companies or people who repatriated foreign capital to the US and increased corporate and personal income tax as well. Then I would use tax revenues to fund the infrastructure program. However I have read Trump’s proposals. He wants to use public-private partnerships and do things like toll roads to pay for the investments. That is a regression versus previous US policy. It is also a debt funded model.

    1. Salaries have either stayed flat or decreased in real terms.

      Not according to BLS or the Fed. Wages have increased over inflation from 2018 to 2019 by 1.6%.

    2. Salaries have either stayed flat or decreased in real terms.

      What about total compensation, including health insurance? That looks like it’s been growing relative to consumer prices.

      This basically means that people have also gorged themselves on debt to sustain the same level of consumption.

      While it appears true (consumer debt has increased to somewhere around $4 trillion), there isn’t cause and effect here. People could curb spending instead.

      1. Much of that debt is higher education, which definitely is not a cause and effect that can be attributed to Trump.

    3. Tax cuts are always the right thing to do. In a normal existence, spending cuts would accompany them. In a perfect world, the corporate cronyism would be ended.

  4. Well, one aspect of Trump is that he is a large orange target of the incoming.
    The point is that Trump is the lessor of two evils- was and is better much better than Clinton.
    And he will probably to better than anyone running in 2020.

    Obama’s FBI and Justice dept is obviously the worst in the history of the US.
    And obviously Clinton would made it even worse.

    The president job is not to manage the Congress, but it seems Trump has had good effect upon the Congress- Dems are showing their true colors and Reps are somehow becoming less spineless.

    It seems rather obvious that Trump is the Destructor, and some people seem to be overly interested of what form the Destructor is in.

    It seems AOC could another distructor, but as Trump might say, she seem tiny and doesn’t have enough energy.

    People don’t seem to be aware of how they are summoning the distructors.

    We don’t need the globalists. We don’t need a vast, oppressive, and uncontrollable federal government. And we don’t need a media telling what to think- which might not be so boring if they were vaguely intelligent and not pathetic puppets of their stupid corporate masters.

    We in the age of too big to fail and pass the bill without reading it.

    Why would anyone want more of this?

    1. No, not really. Like I said before I am an European. You guys control your own destiny. I just say things like I perceive them. Which is not to say that we don’t make mistakes here either. But I would not trade our system for yours that’s for sure.

      1. Wouldn’t trade the US system for what you have in Europe?

        But you are making that trade. Indeed, you are.

    2. If I was Trump I would have granted exemptions for companies or people who repatriated foreign capital to the US

      This was on point though.

  5. Trump has certainly divided the country with the result that the Rabid Right and Loony Left are stronger today than before his election, but when it comes down to it when Trump leaves office I just don’t think he’ll leave a positive lasting legacy for the Republican Party. The next Democrat President will with much popularity reverse most of what Trump has done. Perhaps that’s “Why it matters”. Trump has caused problems that will plague the politics of the American right for some time after he leaves office, effectively giving strength to the left.

    1. Trump has certainly divided the country

      No, the country was already divided. Marxism has been ascending on the left and it has nothing to do with Trump. I am not sure what you mean by “rabid right” because centrists are claimed to be dangerous extremists by the media. If you mean the white nationalist types, they are infinitesimally small in number and just get more coverage than they used to.

      The street fights have largely been the cause of Democrat’s getting back to their roots of violent suppression and their victims fighting back. There would be zero violent incidents if Democrats just acted like adults, or even children, and not thugs.

      Great view of the Dragon eh?

  6. What Trump does:
    “Bill Hobbs, who offered the following analysis on his Facebook page. It’s lengthy but well worth the reading:

    For all his boorishness and other faults, Donald Trump has a singular talent and it may explain a whole lot of his governing style, and his success. Donald Trump instinctively knows almost immediately where his opponent’s jugular vein is, and that is where he attacks, and that is where he exerts the most pressure and the most leverage to get the best deal.”
    https://www.lifezette.com/2018/08/heres-why-trumps-greatest-talent-terrifies-dems-and-baffles-republicans/

    Linked from:
    https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/
    [And as Glenn says, read the whole thing]

    1. Oh, btw, AOC is hitting the Dems where they are the weakest [not sure that she doing it on purpose].

      Do you wonder why Dems didn’t do anything about “global warming” with Obama and Dems were controlling Congress?

      Dems want to wail about global warming, but don’t actually want to try to resolve the issue.

      Any serious look at it, would conclude that if want to lower CO2, you build more nuclear power plants [and getting rid of nuclear power plants is another hobby of the dems].
      So. other fiddling with it, any serious look at it, would reach the obvious solution [and betray a lot of lefty activists].

      I don’t think it’s important to reduce CO2, though nuclear energy is good because it’s a clean, safe, and endless source of energy. But as general matter, a government running anything [including nuclear power plants] is an inherent disaster.

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