For a newspaper that he constantly describes as “failing” and “Fake News,” Donald Trump pays an awful lot of attention to The New York Times.
A series of tweets by the paper’s Nobel Prize-winning economics columnist Paul Krugman referenced an article in the newspaper on how Trump’s establishment of “Opportunity Zones” — part of the Republican tax bill that gave billions in tax cuts to the already wealthy while offering pittances to everyone else — primarily benefited Trump’s associates and benefactors in a swampy mass of corruption as usual.
Worth remembering that the tax bill was rushed through without hearings or any time for analysis, and it was widely — and correctly — predicted that this would create huge loopholes 2/ https://t.co/GVn47qOGQ6
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) September 1, 2019
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Trump's proposal to index capital gains to inflation — even aside from giving the vast bulk of the benefits to the wealthy — falls into that category. Bc capital gains would be indexed, but other things not, huge possibilities for tax arbitrage 4/
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) September 1, 2019
So there would be huge abuse, huge giveaway to the wealthy, and job creation only for accountants and tax lawyers 6/
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) September 1, 2019
Krugman’s strong indictment of the Trump administration’s tax policies — coupled with The New York Times’ exposure of the dark underbelly of billionaire tax evasion schemes — was enough to set the president off on an epic Twitter rant, one not likely to earn him the Nobel Prize in economics that his critic already possesses.
With growing predictions of an impending economic recession looming, Trump defended his economic policies with the usual parcel of lies he offers in defense of his economic stewardship to his gullible followers.
….adds up to the most ambitious Pro-Worker policy agenda this Country has ever seen. The President promised Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, and that is exactly what he is delivering.” @SteveHiltonx @NextRevFNC @FoxNews
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 2, 2019
Nothing says “truthiness” like a quote praising Trump from Fox News, at least in the president’s own eyes.
Trump went directly after Krugman in his next tweet.
Since my election, many trillions of dollars of worth has been created for our Country, and the Stock Market is up over 50%. If you followed the advice of the Failing New York Times columnist, Paul Krugman, you’d be doing VERY poorly – you’d be angry and hurt. He never got it!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 2, 2019
Trump’s criticism of Krugman’s economic advice would certainly carry more weight if the figures he used in his tweet were anything close to the reality of the stock market performance.
No, the stock market hasn’t grown “over 50%” since Trump took office. The S&P 500 was up around 29% since the beginning of the president’s term until mid-August of this year — a figure that compares negatively to the index’s performance of a 46% gain at the same point in the Obama presidency.
Yet, any rise in the market during the Trump administration also ignores the fact that only slightly more than 50% of Americans actually own any stocks whatsoever and that the richest 10% of households controlled 84% of the total value of the stock market.
Trump says that anyone following Krugman’s advice would be doing “VERY poorly,” but their opinions about that advice will change dramatically when the poor market fundamentals caused by Trump’s trade wars and tariff impositions lead to an inevitable market collapse and wipe out the paper wealth that was generated during his term.
Unfortunately for America and the global economy, Trump is the one who doesn’t “get it.” With the U.S. Treasury bond yield curve still inverted — a historical sign that a market crash is imminent as investors flee the stock market to the safety of government bonds — chances are good that the US will enter a recession before the 2020 elections are held.
At that point, no amount of tweeted lies by Donald Trump will help reverse the economic damage his policies have caused. The smart money is following Krugman’s advice while the rich continue to exploit Trump’s tax policies to siphon money from government services that the rest of us depend on while driving up government debt to make their case to cut back or even eliminate those services.
Trump was so angry with Krugman that he then went on an ill-advised Twitter rant attacking the head of the AFL-CIO on Labor Day of all days.
….and watched. NAFTA is the worst Trade Deal ever made – terrible for labor – and Richard let it stand. No wonder unions are losing so much. The workers will vote for me in 2020 (lowest unemployment, most jobs ever), and should stop paying exorbitant $Dues, not worth it!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 2, 2019
Of course, any worker who votes for Trump in 2020 will be casting a vote that goes massively against their own self-interest. The only workers who’ll vote for him are those too brainwashed by right-wing media, Russian Facebook ads, and Trump’s own lies to realize that he’s the worst thing that ever happened to the labor movement since the union-busting Ronald Reagan.
Follow Vinnie Longobardo on Twitter.
Original reporting by Tom Boggioni at RawStory.
