Following Donald Trump being found guilty on 34 charges of false accounting and paying off a Call Girl in order to influence a Presidential election, several letters have appeared in the morning paper saying Donald Trump is a political martyr and that Joe Biden is the worst President in American history. These correspondents presented no proof to substantiate their criticism of President Biden. So far the paper has not published any letters in defence of Joe Biden.
I do not know where these correspondents obtained their information about Joe Biden’s presidency. May I suggest they and perhaps the Editor of the newspaper, widen their knowledge base by reading an article in The Guardian of May 22nd written by Robert Reich, Professor of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkley.
Professor Reich is a noted author and syndicated columnist who worked in the administrations of Presidents Ford, Carter, Clinton and Obama. The gist of Reich’s article is that in covering the attention-grabbing behaviour of Donald Trump, the popular media have overlooked the achievements of the Biden administration.
I will refer to only some of the many points Reich made. He writes that, despite public opinion polls to the contrary, the US economy is growing and the stock market is at a record high. Unemployment has remained under 4% for the longest stretch in fifty years. Under Biden the economy gained 15 million jobs. Under Trump it lost 2.9 million jobs. Inflation is at 3%. Post Covid it was at 9%. Spending on new factories has tripled over the last three years. In 2016, Trump campaigned against the US trade deficit with China. It was US$ 350billion. In the first three years of Trump’s presidency, pre Covid, this deficit grew to US$ 379billion. Under Biden the China trade deficit has dropped US$100 billion to US$ 279 billion. The lowest it has been since 2010. Trump’s record on antitrust enforcement was abysmal. Biden has been the most activist trustbuster in half a century. Under Trump, the number of Americans lacking health insurance rose by 3 million. Under Biden, it’s been just the opposite. Enrolment in Obamacare has surged from 12 million in 2021 to 21.3 million.
These are just some of the facts listed by Reich. Sadly, they are largely unreported by the popular media who highlight more sensational Trump stories, often without any facts at all.
Just after he was convicted on 34 charges of deceit and corruption, Trump defiantly said he would continue to fight for the American Constitution. Let us not forget that on January 6th, 2021, Trump, the self-proclaimed Patriot, mounted an attempted coup against the United States government, encouraging his followers to riot ("Fight like hell") at the Capitol building and to violently overturn the results of the 2020 election. We all saw it unfold so terribly on television. That it happened cannot be denied. If past performance is the best indicator of future actions, I would think that no rational person would ever consider putting Trump back in the White house.
On the other hand if we look at Trump's shambolic presidency we would wonder who in their right mind would want him back. In 2016 he won the Presidential election and had a great many promise to keep. He kept very few of them and some he completely reversed.
Here is a very short list of the very long list of promises that Trump failed to deliver or of which he did the complete opposite:-
Trump failed to combat Covid-19. 170 000 Americans died because he said he could beat Covid without a vaccine.
He failed to keep Americans healthy. Apart from advising them to drink the wildly inappropriate Hydroxychloroquine 7 million Americans lost their health insurance under Trump.
He saide he would cut taxes but make the rich pay more. He did the complete opposite. He lowered taxes for the very rich while most Americans paid increased taxes.
He said he would boost economic growth by 4%pa. Instead the economy went backwards and unemployment soared.
He said he would not cut Social Security. He cut it severely. His budgets cut billions out of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
He promised to be a "Voice" for the Workers. He was not. he stripped workers of their rights. repealed protections, rolled back Work Safety rules and did nothing about wage theft by greedy employers,
He promised to eliminate the Federal deficit. Under his presidency it increased by 60%.
He said he would hire "the best people". He didn't. He forced a record number of rational and intelligent staff from his cabinet and replaced them with underperforming "Yes" men and women.
Trump promised to "Drain the swamp." He didn't do that, either. What he did do was bring more billionaires, CEOs and lawyers into his administration than any other US President in history. he also filled Federal agencies and departments with lobbyists, lawyers and consultants who busied themselves creating new policies for the companies they previously worked for.
He promised to build a wall along the Us' southern border and that Mexico would pay for it. He didn't. Neither did Mexico.
On the international stage trump was a worrying flop. He alienated America's main allies Germany, France and the United kingdom. At the same time he almost humiliated himself and his country in his deference to Vladimir Putin at international conferences. Trump said Putin was right to annexe Crimea. He said that he would not defend a NATO country if Putin attacked it. He also made a trip to North Korea to hold hands and curry favour with Kim Jung Un.
In recent times Trump seems to more and more communicate with repetitive short slogans or sour criticisms. He seems unable to talk broadly about political, economic or social matters. It will be interesting how he performs in the debates with joe Biden. will he be able to provide some substance to the frothy epithets he throws around over and over again?
Sadly, the popular media provides very few facts when it reports on Donald Trump. It hardly reports on Joe Biden all, except to say that he is old and sleepy. Interestingly, it was Donald Trump who slept through quite a bit of his recent trial.
We need a media that tells us the facts about what Trump did and didn't do. To tell us the facts about what Biden has done and is doing.
The day of reckoning is fast approaching . If the world is plunged into chaos and despair we will all blame the media for not presenting the facts. The sad fact is, it will be too late.
