The Disaster That Wasn't, The Disaster That Is

The entire time that Donald Trump was running for President we were told that he would be a disaster for America.

It was a constant refrain.

He was going to wreck the economy.

He was going to round up people on the streets and deport them.

He was not going to be able to build a border wall and stop the stream of illegal immigrants.

He was going to cause a climate disaster.

He was going to start a war in the Middle East or with North Korea.

He was not going to be able to confront ISIS. ISIS terrorists would soon be attacking our homeland due to Trump's threats.

He was not going to be able to renegotiate NAFTA or impose tariffs on China.

He would not be able to make America energy dependent. We would be dependent on the Middle East forever.

He would appoint far-right judicial extremists to the Supreme Court that would quickly overturn any number of prior judicial decisions.

The list went on and on.

You may recall this statement from Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman on election night when it became apparent that Trump was going to win in 2016.

It really does now look like President Donald J. Trump, and markets are plunging. When might we expect them to recover?

Frankly, I find it hard to care much, even though this is my specialty. The disaster for America and the world has so many aspects that the economic ramifications are way down my list of things to fear.

Still, I guess people want an answer: If the question is when markets will recover, a first-pass answer is never.

In January, 2017, shortly before Trump took office, I wrote about all the fear mongering that the Democrats had been doing (and which the mainstream dutifully repeated) and concluded there was a simple reason for it.

They did not fear that Trump would fail. They feared that Trump would be successful.

I could go on and on about the fears the Democrats state they have about Donald J. Trump.

Of course, how rational is any of this fear?

They exhibited no fear whatsoever when Barack Obama was taking office despite the fact that he had absolutely no managerial experience, he had no foreign policy experience, he had served but four years in the United States Senate before taking office and he had been in the public eye for less than five years.

Compare that to Donald Trump's nearly 50 years of business experience and over 30 years where he has been consistently in the public eye.

I think the answer is very clear as to why Democrats really fear Trump.

It is the most awful fear imaginable for the Democrat party and the media elite.

However, you will never hear this fear spoken aloud.

Their greatest fear is that Trump will be successful.

Were the Trump years a disaster?

Nothing the fear mongers warned about came true.

It was the disaster that wasn't.

In fact, aside from effects related to the Covid pandemic, it was a period of one success after another. 

High job growth. Reduced poverty levels. Higher income levels. Low inflation. Low energy prices. Increased economic opportunities for minorities. Historic tax cuts. The resurgence of manufacturing in the United States. The defeat of ISIS. Energy independence. New trade deals with Mexico, Canada and China. Peace accords in the Middle East. Peace talks with North Korea. The most stable southern border situation in decades.

The Covid pandemic in his last year did end up overwhelming everything else Trump did.

However, Trump did successfully push the vaccines forward in less than one year which was thought impossible to almost everybody when the initiative began. In fact, Trump's optimism on the development of the vaccines was constantly derided.

That includes Joe Biden who said this in the last Presidential debate at the end of October, 2020.

“We’re about to go into a dark winter. A dark winter,” Biden said. “And he (Trump) has no clear plan, and there’s no prospect that there’s going to be a vaccine available for the majority of the American people before the middle of next year.”

"No prospect there's going to be a vaccine available for the majority of the American people before the middle of next year"?

What actually happened?

By June 30, 2021 (the middle of the year), 336 million doses of the Covid vaccines had been administered.

Source: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccination-trends_vacctrends-total-cum

The fact is that the vaccines were not only available, they were administered by the middle of the year for everyone who was eligible and wanted them.

At the same time, Covid cases, hospitalizations and deaths have all been higher in 2021 with Biden in office than they were in 2020 with Trump.

This is despite the fact that vaccines have been available the entire year starting with those at highest risk.

There have been about 1/3 more confirmed cases in 2021 than there were in 2020. (10 months in each reporting period).

Similarly, Covid deaths are 15% higher thus far this year than they were in 2020.

How come most people are not aware of this?

Could it be because the mainstream media no longer is publicizing the case counts and deaths each day?

Trump was a disaster on Covid but Biden isn't?

Of course, the list is long when it comes to the disasters we are seeing in 2021.

Afghanistan.

Energy prices.

The supply chain.

Empty shelves.

Worker shortages.

Chaos at the border.

Inflation.

Crime.

Cancel culture.

Authoritarianism

Covid arrived in in the United States but Trump had nothing to do with it. In fact, Trump was about the only public figure who had been warning us about trusting and relying on China for years.

Almost every one of the disasters we are seeing right now is the direct result of actions Biden has been responsible for.

Let's take energy for example.

Biden is the guy who campaigned by saying oil executives should be jailed if they don't take accountability for helping to doom the environment.

He has actively done everything in his power to stop oil and gas exploration in the United States.

It should not be a surprise to see soaring gas prices at the pump and heating oil and natural gas prices going through the roof as winter approaches.

What is Biden's answer?

He is desperately appealing to OPEC and Russia to boost oil production.

It is ok for OPEC and Russia to produce oil but not U.S. producers?

If it is truly global warming Biden is worried about how come it is not a problem if the oil comes from the Middle East rather than the United States?

Of course,"the disaster that is" becomes more apparent every day to more and more Americans.

A Suffolk/USA Today poll released this week shows Biden with a 38% approval rating.

Kamala Harris has a 28% approval rating.

How does a VP get a 28% approval rating? That is not an easy task.

For context, Jimmy Carter had a 31% approval rating when he left office after losing the electoral college vote 489-49 in 1980 to Ronald Reagan.

Nixon had a 24% approval rating when he was forced to resign under threat of impeachment in 1974.

Yes, Donald Trump had a similar approval rating as Biden about the same point in his Presidency. However, this was at a time that he was being bombarded daily with allegations that he colluded with the Russians to get elected. Allegations that continued throughout his four years.

Slowly but surely the facts are coming out that the Russian collusion allegations thrown at Trump by the Democrats and the media were nothing more than a political hit job that could be one of the biggest crimes in the history of the United States.

Special Counsel John Durham has started making arrests more than two years into the probe.

Everything points to Clinton and the Democrats being behind it all.

Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/durham-theory-of-case-appears-to-be-trump-russia-collusion-was-largely-a-clinton-fabrication/ar-AAQsYvg

This is a headline from the Times in London today.

The Brits are beginning to understand. How long before many more Americans do as well?

Trump has plenty of detractors. 

I know many Republicans who would like him to go away.

I personally think he would much better served by just standing by and watching the disaster unfold right now. 

There is no need for him to comment or insert himself into the debate.

Biden, Harris and the Democrats are burying themselves. Trump does not have to pick up a shovel with any additional dirt.

Time is on his side.

Trump's record of competence in comparison to the chaos we see right now also looks better with every passing day.

For example, look at these net favorables ( positives less negatives) in the Suffolk poll.

Source: https://twitter.com/PollsandOdds/status/1457727256252592139

Trump is -4 but Biden and Harris are -19 and Pelosi is -35!

Only 20% think the direction of the country is on the right track.

64% of voters (28% of Democrats) are already saying they don't want Biden to run for another term.

58% of voters (24% of Republicans) don't want Trump to run again.

The irony of it all.

Biden has become more unpopular than Trump (even in his own party) in less than 10 months.

We were told by Democrats that Trump was a disaster every day for five years.

It was the disaster that wasn't.

We were told how great everything would be once Trump was out of office.

Biden and the Democrats would make everything better.

They are going to "build back better".

We are now seeing how deep and devious their lies have been.

It has led us to "the disaster that is".

If this is better, I don't want to see what "worse" looks like.

Could we see Biden or Harris sink below Nixon's approval rating if it gets "worse"?