Buying Love

Donald Trump isn't wrong about everything. He might have a point about our country's need to build a stronger manufacturing base so that we can employ more people and be more self-reliant. 

And he might be right about how to save his election chances. Before we get into all that, you have to remember the pattern: Trump generally promises things he doesn't deliver. But when it does deliver, it's window dressing. It looks like he's taking an initiative that will benefit ordinary working Americans. Among that larger group, only the white ones still support Trump.

But when the dust clears, we see that he didn't really make things better. Take the massive tax cuts of 2017. Our economy was still growing as it bounced back from the recession, but it needed some caffeine to keep expanding. The tax cuts were just the drug: they indeed stimulated the economy, unemployment went down, and real wages actually began climbing. 

But who really benefited from the tax cut? The rich are still getting lots--and lots-- richer, while ordinary Americans are still muddling around. 

And who's hurt? For decades Republicans will tell us we can't do anything constructive because we've run up such massive deficits. They'll even blame Democrats. We all know this.

So what now? 

Trump released several executive orders with the stated intention of lowering drug prices--a 2016 campaign promise he hadn't delivered on. He's probably not wrong about that. In fact, Democrats are saying he needs to do more. Matter of fact, Big Pharma stock prices tanked in response. 

Chaser? These price cuts won't take effect for a very long time, if they do so at all. Because it's Trump, right? Per NPR,

However, this order includes a section that says that before it can take effect, the secretary of health and human services needs to confirm that the order won't cause federal spending, premiums or patients' total out-of-pocket costs to increase. Since one of these is bound to result from the executive order, it likely will never go into effect.

The other thing? Having quit on the coronavirus, Trump has finally listened to his advisers: You're hurting OUR people. He's finally speaking out for masks. He revived the press briefings. Why now?

In the past couple of weeks, senior advisers began presenting Trump with maps and data showing spikes in coronavirus cases among “our people” in Republican states, a senior administration official said. They also shared projections predicting that virus surges could soon hit politically important states in the Midwest — including Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, the official said.

Right. Trump's uniquely horrid (ok, Brazil) coronavirus response has him way, way behind Joe Biden in the polls.

Meanwhile, the usual corruption continues. Trump says of child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, "I wish her well." And the money. Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold continues doing the hard work of chasing the money. He tweets:

We still don’t know how much taxpayer $ has been paid to 

@realdonaldtrump

’s company.

How much data is missing? Here are the most recent records released by 

@DeptofDefense

 on its spending at Mar-a-Lago. April 2017.

BUT...they promise to produce new records this week. Stay tuned.