I realize that some readers think I’m a partisan hack, so I’m going to start this column by saying something negative about former President Joe Biden and something positive about President Donald Trump.
We’ll start with Biden. He should never have run for re-election. At the end of his first term, he was 82 years old. I know some folks that age or older who are still as sharp as ever, but Biden’s only debate with Trump proved he was not one of the exceptions. It was painful and embarrassing to watch, and it was wrong for those near him to cover up how much he had deteriorated. Sure, he dropped out of the race eventually and threw his support behind Kamala Harris, but the die was cast. Just as Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s legacy is tarnished by her unwillingness to step aside, Biden’s bid for a second term will be the specter that haunts his own legacy.
And now for something positive about Trump. Back in February, Trump announced that he was going to do away with the penny. I support this move 100%. It makes no sense that we continue to produce a coin that’s worth one cent but costs 3.7 cents to make. There’s no reason we can’t do away with the penny and round every price to the nearest five cents. If Trump succeeds in doing away with the penny, I’ll gladly tell anyone who asks that I support the move.
Having said all that, it’s no secret that I don’t think Trump is a good President, to put it mildly. I also think Biden was a better President than I expected him to be, which may largely be to the credit of his cabinet.
But I share these two observations to prove a shocking point: it is possible to criticize someone you largely agree with, and it is also possible to praise someone you largely disagree with. Very few things in life are purely black and white. The worst person you know might raise a good point occasionally; the best person you know might fumble.
I think it’s important that we remind ourselves of this every once in a while because just lately, I feel like I’m losing my mind.
In the lead-up to the 2024 Presidential election, Trump said voting for Harris would be the same thing as voting for the stock market to collapse.
“You want to see a market crash?” he said at an October rally in Pennsylvania. “If we lost this election, I think the market would go down the tubes.” At an earlier rally, he said that voting for Harris would usher in a “Kamala economic crash, a 1929-style Depression.”
But of course, Trump won the election. And thanks to his economic policies, he has created the worst start to a stock market following an inauguration in modern history.
That isn’t hyperbole; it’s a simple fact. And this isn’t like the market crash of 2001 that followed former President George W. Bush into office; in that case, the dot com bubble had already burst and the market crash was inevitable. Trump inherited a strong bull market from Biden and is well on his way to turning it into a bear market after fewer than three months in office. The impending recession will be solely the fault of Trump’s tariffs and economic policies.
Trump’s argument is that Americans need to just hang tough and endure some brief hardship, after which manufacturing will return to America, high-paying jobs will abound, and Cadillac will presumably bring back the ’59 Deville.
None of that is going to happen, but this column isn’t even about that. It’s about Trump’s supporters.
Imagine if Biden, Harris, or Barack Obama had won the presidency and tanked the stock market within three months of being inaugurated. Imagine if when confronted about it, they told people they just needed to hang tough and endure this momentary hardship. Imagine if after that, they had blown off further questions to go golfing.
Republicans wouldn’t just demand impeachment; they would demand blood sacrifice. They would demand heads on pikes paraded through the streets. I remember the angry coverage Fox News devoted to Obama’s love of dijon mustard and ownership of a tan suit; had Obama ushered in the worst financial catastrophe in decades, I imagine the shrieking rage of the various talking heads on Fox would have been audible from outer space.
You can’t have it both ways. You can’t vote for a guy because he said his opponent would tank the stock market and then praise him when he tanks the stock market himself.
Or you can, but no one’s even going to pretend to take you seriously anymore.
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