In another forum, an inveterate, rabid Trump-hater posted the following:
"Trump: ‘You know, we’re resetting a table. We were losing $2 trillion a year on trade, and you can’t do that. I mean, at some point somebody has to come along and stop it, because it’s not sustainable.’
“Trump gets two things wrong here. First of all, the goods and services deficit was almost $920 billion in 2024, according to the Commerce Department. So he’s doubling the real number. Second, the United States is not “losing” money on trade deficits. After all these years, Trump still does not grasp this fundamental economic point. Yet he’s basing policy — and steering the United States into economic uncertain times — on this misunderstanding."
My response:
I'll take Trump's numbers over yours any day. His numbers may lack precision (I'm not sure precise numbers exist), as does much that he, a flamboyant politician, has to say, but the underlying truths are invariably there and the direction of his comments and policies is invariably correct and in the best interests of Americans - as his poll numbers, far outpacing those of the Democrats, continue to demonstrate. Bumps and potholes in the road, sure, but we're at long last going in the right direction, away from the precipice - and so say electoral and popular majorities of Americans.
The crucial “fundamental economic point” you miss - the absolutely undeniable economic point - is that America has been gutted of its essential core industries over past decades and our national security consequently has been left in tatters, an empty shell:
We won WWII because America was the world’s manufacturing powerhouse. We simply out-manufactured the Nazi enemy. Our manufactures fueled the entire war effort. We saved the Brits and the Russians. Neither country could have stood against the Nazis on their own. We beat the Japanese in the Pacific - again by out-manufacturing them.
Those were America’s glory days. Sadly, were we today to find ourselves in, say, a protracted war with China - now the world’s manufacturing powerhouse and our arch enemy - and thus thrown back on our own domestic manufacturing resources - heavy industry, steel, aluminum, shipbuilding, semiconductors, rare earth minerals, pharmaceuticals, energy, etc. - we would likely not survive. (I wouldn't survive. I take a life-saving medication that is exclusively manufactured in China. I would prefer not to have to rely on the good will of an adversarial Chinese Communist Party to stay alive - the same CCP that is already deliberately murdering hundreds of thousands of Americans by means of their fentanyl poison.)
For long decades worshipping at the altar of lowest possible prices for everything, we have allowed globalists and subversives to sell our national strength down the river in exchange for cheap trinkets and nicknacks from abroad - a treasonous sellout. This breach of trust - the perfidious selling or our powerful national birthright for a mess of pottage - has transformed America into an effeminate, limp-wristed consumer society rather than the indominable hard-steel manufacturing Juggernaut we once were. This subversion has economically gutted the country of production capacity essential to our national security and rendered us vulnerable in an increasingly dangerous world.
Donald Trump, along with those few stalwart souls he has gathered around him, have alone had thepatriotic spine to stand up for us, the people, and for our country - a society that has been raped and pillaged by those we should have been able to trust at home, and sucked dry abroad by globalist subversives and foreign economic vampires like China.
No free lunch. If we want to rebuild our national security, as Donald Trump seeks to do via tariff incentives, drawing manufacturing and supporting investment back within our borders, we must be willing to pay the price. (See my earlier Substack post: “The Great Tariff Brouhaha”)
It is a tribute to our country's innate strength that, after decades of being hammered down by such enervating globalist economic punishment, we are still standing and, now with decent patriotic leadership, on our way back up. America has been the world's sucker, but, thanks to Trump, no more. With America under Trump now looking out for its own interests, the “economically uncertain times” you mention are what lies ahead, not for America, but for those many nations whose long-time one-sided American gravy train is coming to an end.
Everything you have to say, every comment or interpretation of data or information you offer here or in your other posts, is obviously seen through a Trump-hating glass darkly. You are perfectly predictable in that regard. Your Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) approach betrays your fundamental gross anti-Trump bias and radically reduces the credibility and value of your offerings. All black and no white, there is not a tinge of fair-mindedness or balance in your take on the man.
I have a little aphorism I have developed and offer to others as a general guide to getting at the truth in a confused, confusing and too-much-information world:
"The credibility of WHAT you argue is directly a function of HOW you argue. Find the truth in the METHODOLOGY of argument. The truth cuts its own way and can be argued for in an honest, open manner that does not insult the intelligence of those it seeks to persuade. Ignorance and deceit cannot be so argued."
Notwithstanding Trump's stunning successes in just a few months, the leftist arguments against Trump - your arguments and those of your online Trump-hating toadies - are notable for nothing more than the ad hominem vitriol and lack of fair-minded balance that so glaringly characterizes them. Turning a blind eye to what in Trump’s agenda actually might be good for America, you and your ilk are hoping that he fails.
Again, all black and no white - not even a few shades of grey here and there, not the slightest attempt at balance, never giving the man even a smidgeon of credit when, in the eyes of the electoral and popular majorities of Americans who rehired him, he deserves and is given a great deal of credit for doing EXACTLY WHAT HE PROMISED TO DO. By your measure Trump has not done, cannot and never will do anything right or good - and with that you betray your gross bias and flush your credibility down the toilet.
Because I know I live in an imperfect world filled with imperfect people, I consider it completely unnecessary to pretend Donald Trump is perfect. No need to defend him in his imperfections and eccentricities - everybody's got 'em - nor do I argue that his every policy is perfect in its conception and execution. In the real world, two steps forward, one step back is as good as it gets... Direction is everything - and, for those with eyes to see, undimmed by Trump hatred, and ears to hear, DJT is obviously moving the country in the right direction.
In sum, I simply cannot imagine a reasonable, thoughtful, informed and patriotic person preferring the disastrous direction chartered for us by the illegitimate, lawless, traitorous Biden regime - a horror now documented in our history - to the hopeful, America First, Make America Great Again agenda of the Trump Administration begun and documented in Trump’s first term and now moving full steam ahead in his second.
Nor can I imagine two more blatantly contrasting points of view - and methodologies of argument - than yours and mine. In my supergenarian world, where time is fast running out, when I consistently recognize gross bias and intellectually, morally and spiritually insulting distortions in a point of view or source of information - distortions that ignore or twist facts to support preconceived notions - I can recognize the basic intent and know that priorities other than fairness, balance and getting at the whole truth are at work - and I know not to waste too much time on it.
Mark this: Donald Trump is America’s last best shot. If he fails - as the seditious left hopes he will - America is finished.
Right vs. wrong, truth vs. lies, reality vs. fantasy, knowledge vs. ignorance, law vs. lawlessness, order vs. chaos, patriotism vs. treason, liberty vs. tyranny, light vs. darkness, good vs. evil, happiness vs. misery…
