One of the most boasted arguments from conservatives, as it relates to the success of President Trump, is what all voters across the political spectrum would likely name in their top three most important issues: the economy.
The supposed success of this administration in terms of the economy is something Donald Trump has extensively touted and his supporters have gullibly eaten up.
It is true that under Trump the economy has grown significantly, this is even more evident with this second quarter hitting an eye-opening 4.1% GDP growth.
The economic boom is not new, as one may believe if one listens to what is said by Trump.
In light of all evidence seen, this economic progress is healthy for the country, but it is not his doing.
Ever since the disastrous 2008 recession, the economy has been recovering, though one may say slowly; the success of the economy can be traced back to 2009, when then President Barack Obama was in his first year of office.
It does not take much to type in a few words on a Google search and see for oneself the reports and data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics highlighting the economic expansion since 2009, which has run onward till this day and has not been affected so much by Trump.
The economic expansion birthed under Barack Obama can well be argued by some critics to not have anything to do with the then President.
Trump’s ability to negotiate better deals for the economy and his tax cuts can also be argued to at most play a small role in the success of this economy.
The fact of the matter is that these sorts of claims, by people on all sides of the political spectrum, are claims that are at the very least debatable.
However, the moment one claims that because of Trump the economy is where it is at today, they are lying to themselves and to whoever they echo the same claim to. Any such claim holds up in no kind of rational discussion as it relates to what one sees when they look backward across the last decade of GDP growth statistics.
One can well recall the many times Trump has disregarded his alleged racism towards minorities by pointing out that because of him, the black and Latino unemployment rate is historically low. Many of his most ardent supporters echo the exact same thing.
For example, Candace Owens and Charlie Kirk, of Turning Point USA, proud supporters of the President, (of whom the former of the two was complimented via tweet by Donald Trump himself on her being part of an “ever expanding group of very smart thinkers”) tweet often about how well the Trump economy — not the economy, but the Trump economy — is doing.
The facts and figures simply do not uphold what is being said by Trump and his supporters.
One may rightly express sincere disbelief and contempt for the lies said about Trump’s alleged dealing abilities creating this economy, but it seems as if the disbelief does not just end there.
Like any influential President, what is said one day by Donald Trump is repeated by his supporters the next. This is more than enough to have anyone with at least a shred of respect for the truth to roll their eyes and sigh in disappointment at how gullible many on the conservative movement have become.
That that President can lie to his supporters so blatantly and even go so far as to say that, since this economy of his is doing such good things for American minorities, they should be nothing but thankful to him, seems like something audacious.
However, in retrospect, it may not seem so much of an audacious thing to do at all, at least now.
Trump has lied clearly to his supporters from the outset of his campaign and on numerous occasions which I should not even have to name, and nearly all those times the lies were eaten up with smiles and a complete lack of skepticism.
Why Trump lies so blatantly — or better yet, so comfortably — is because he knows so well that many of his supporters are so reeled in with what he says and so glued on to their idea that any argument from an opposing side, even if objective, must be wrong.
Not just be wrong, but be a lie manipulated by the fake news media.
Not just be wrong, but be the product of the inner workings of the supposed Deep State.
Not just be wrong, but be in contradiction to their beloved President who battles so strongly against the former and latter entities. In other words, he is never wrong.
Take one example of this from his former and first-of-many Press Secretaries, Sean Spicer.
During the course of his campaign, Donald Trump took to saying that the job numbers put out by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which showed the thriving economy, were wrong.
It did not just stop there. He even went so far as to say that the real unemployment rate was around 10%.
A little over a month into his Presidency, February job numbers came out which unsurprisingly showed the addition of 235,000 jobs to the economy and an unemployment rate of 4.7%, 5.3% less than claimed just months before on the campaign trail.
When asked by a reporter whether the President—having claimed in the past that job reports under Obama were “phony” — believed that these new job numbers were correct, Spicer replied that he had talked to the President prior to the press briefing and had been told by Trump himself to quote him in saying, “They may have been phony in the past, but it’s very real now.”
It seems that having stepped into office, Trump already felt comfortable enough to lie blatantly. The reason quite simply has to do with the fact that Trump knows how gullible his supporters are and takes advantage of that.
A large portion of Trump supporters have strong cognitive dissonance when it comes to criticism of him, and he knows that better than anyone else. The reason why the leader of the free world lies so comfortably and without a care is because his supporters have slowly been opening the door for him to do so the more and more they eat up the lies they are told.
Plain and simple, if tens of millions of Americans and the acting President, so often base their mutual support for each other on lies, there is something seriously wrong with politics as a whole.
The President can do better than this; the conservative movement can do better than this; America can do better than this.
What is seen now can be split into two logical conclusions: Either we have a President and his supporting populous blatantly and carelessly lying about the “Trump economy” being his doing, or we have a President and a populous who seem to not know that this economic expansion has been going on for a while and predicted to have gone this far anyway, regardless of who was elected.
Both of these conclusions seem to be equally worrying.
Whether one or the other is true, what is certain is that we have an entire sector of the political spectrum seemingly fooled.
* Yonathan Alvarado is a 17-year-old writer with no political affiliation living in Northern Virginia near Washington, D.C. He loves reading about politics, religion and science. His idol, if he were to have any, is the late, great Christopher Hitchens.
Latest posts by Being Libertarian (see all)
- Ron Paul Revolution Takes Over The Libertarian Party - May 30, 2022
- Secession: The Lost Aspect of Federalism - April 16, 2022
- Democracy & Freedom: A Contradiction in Terms - February 15, 2022
