A LOOK IN THE MIRROR: A Trumped up State of the Union

The Objective Facts filtered from the State of the Union—ask if you can be this objective with yourself when evaluating Trump.

1. Trump: “We recently imposed tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese goods — and now our Treasury is receiving billions and billions of dollars.”

True, since Trump imposed tariffs on certain imports from China and imported steel and aluminum from around the world, federal tariff revenues have increased. Revenues from customs duties, which include tariffs, rose by $13 billion in the third quarter of 2018 compared with a year earlier. However, that money is paid by Americans who bring the goods across the border, and it is then passed on to American consumers in the form of higher prices. This is simple deflective mathematics.

2. Trump: “My administration has cut more regulations in a short period of time than any other administration during its entire tenure.”

This is false, and I also admit I am against deregulation for the most part. Nevertheless, the Trump administration has, in fact, slowed the pace of adopting new rules, and it has moved to roll back many existing or proposed federal regulations, particularly in the area of environmental protection. The White House claimed that as of October, a total of $33 billion worth of future regulator costs had been eliminated. But the scale of the rollbacks in the Trump era still does not exceed extensive cuts in federal rules during the Carter and Reagan administrations, when rules governing airline, truck and rail transportation were wiped off the books. All of this fails to even consider the damage he has done to consumer regulation for the express purpose of protecting us—the American consumer. People who believe that regulations, and thus the necessary expenditures to enforce them, are bad because they cost money. You must ask yourself whether the costs of regulations, in any form, are worth ensuring the safety and protection of others over the potential profits that might otherwise be generated.

3. Trump: “We have created 5.3 million new jobs and importantly added 600,000 new manufacturing jobs — something which almost everyone said was impossible to do, but the fact is, we are just getting started.”

This is objectively false and perhaps the most insulting “fake news” if you will, to the intellect of the American people. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that since January 2017, when Trump took office, the economy has added 4.9 million jobs, including 454,000 jobs manufacturing jobs. Far from being “impossible,” that is completely comparable to the pace of job creation during some two-year period during the Obama administration, and yet significantly slower than the pace of job creation in manufacturing in the 1990s. It is, whether you prefer to admit it or not, a direct result of the continued job growth already conceptualized and implemented as a result of the recovery that began under the prior administration—period, end of story.

4. Trump: “The border city of El Paso, Tex., used to have extremely high rates of violent crime — one of the highest in the entire country, and considered one of our nation’s most dangerous cities. Now, immediately upon its building, with a powerful barrier in place, El Paso is one of the safest cities in our country.”

This is false. El Paso was never one of the most dangerous cities in the United States, and crime has been declining in cities across the entire country — not just El Paso — for reasons that have nothing to do with border fencing. In 2008, before border barriers had been completed in El Paso, the city had the second-lowest violent crime rate among more than 20 similarly sized cities. In 2010, after the fencing went up, it held that same place. Why is this so difficult to conceptualize? Well, I don’t believe it is. I believe Trump—emotionally speaking—dislikes brown and black people.

5. Trump: “San Diego used to have the most illegal border crossings in our country. In response, a strong security wall was put in place. This powerful barrier almost completely ended illegal crossings.”

This is deceptively false. According to the Congressional Research Service, the fence alone “did not have a discernible impact” on the number of immigrants crossing the border into the United States illegally. Campaign promises don’t necessarily equate to the most logical way to cure problems. But when you rely on emotion and prejudice to twist concepts into what you feel they should be, they are more than adequate.

6. Trump: “As we speak, large, organized caravans are on the march to the United States.”

At the end of January, thousands of migrants from Central America were headed north, and some of the travelers said they intended to try to cross into the United States. But many in the caravan have said they plan to remain in Mexico, thanks in part to policies put in place by the new Mexican government. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has made it easier for Central Americans to get visas and work in Mexico. Trump’s warnings of an imminent invasion from new caravans is complete propaganda, not to mention his ludicrous and factually devoid representations that they are all “criminals” as opposed to refugees. The CDC reported that 40,000 people died as a result of gun violence last year alone. Are we to believe they were all immigration-related? Or, were they logically from the government’s refusal to do anything about deadly weapons in this country? Do you research and employ your thought process reasonably.

7. Trump: "When I took office, ISIS controlled more than 20,000 square miles in Iraq and Syria. Just two years ago. Today, we have liberated virtually all of the territory from the grip of these bloodthirsty monsters.”

Misleading to be kind. The Defense Department reports that the Islamic State now controls only around 20 square miles of territory in Syria, down from 34,000 in 2014. Nevertheless, the gains against the Sunni extremist caliphate began under President Obama, with the Trump administration continuing Obama administration policy. Moreover, the top American military commander in the Middle East told a Senate hearing on Tuesday that the Islamic extremists could nevertheless return if the United States and its allies abandoned the fight. In December, Trump announced he was withdrawing American troops from Syria to the joy of the Russian government.

In the end, there is really no way to get through to people who, when absent logical objective thought, refuse to acknowledge truth, but rather ignite their passion with the fire of emotion, ultimately resulting in less than sober commentary--to the extreme, some may even say hate and prejudice to be sure. As for me, I have always admitted I dislike Trump--but not because of his misguided ideas in my view, but because of the kind of human being he is. To say that “other politicians do bad things and lie” or to say “that is politics” is not an excuse for present bad human behavior (again, if you are thinking clearly—objectively). Hey, we all make mistakes, but I believe we will ultimately be judged on our conscious intentional choices when it comes to how we treat and care for other human beings. For those who don’t believe that, it’s a lot easier to act like Trump.