TRUMP’S HARM AGAINST AMERICA

 

“Disruption is not good for people.” Steve Ballmer, former president of Microsoft

In my lifetime, three individuals have been responsible for bringing the stock market and the world economy to its knees. The first individual had bad intentions. On September 11, 2001, Osama bin Laden unleashed terrorists who crashed two planes into the World Trade Center, killing 2996 people. The stock market fell more than 14% causing a 1.4 trillion loss in market value.

The second individual, an innocent, unknown person from China, was the first human to contract the Covid-19 virus in 2019. The ensuing pandemic had a dramatic impact on world-wide financial markets, causing investors to suffer significant losses.  Between Feb. 12 and March 23, of 2020, the Dow lost 37% of its value.

The third individual is President Donald Trump. He will forever remain infamous for the recent stock market crash and global disruptions. Trump personally triggered the sell-off by invoking a head-scratching tariff policy that caused indefensible damage to our economy. In an instant, he made our trading partners into trade adversaries, erasing decades of good will and American success.

Trump’s actions have triggered a trade war with China, essentially halting most China trade, and may spark a global recession. In the period of one week, he was able to far exceed the severity of my previous two examples. At one point, $11 trillion in stock market value was lost. This represented the largest two-day-drop in history.

Even after Trump’s backtracking on April 9, when he postponed reciprocal tariffs for 90 days, he had already caused profound harm to the American economy. The market has recovered a portion of its large loses. However, the day-to-day uncertainty in the economy and unprecedented volatility in the stock market remains. There is still no prudent tariff policy in place. 

This entire debacle was driven by Trump’s uninformed notion of how tariffs work. His mindset was emboldened by White House ideological sycophants including Peter Novarro. The truth is that Trump made up his tariff policy with no input from the business, financial or international communities. He made up the debilitating numbers for reciprocal tariffs. He made up the plan for application of the tariffs with no advanced notice to those it impacted.

The financial markets entered a dangerous cascading deep dive on April 9, causing chaotic economic dysfunction. Trump then made up the rationale for suspending the higher tariffs. Of course, he tried to claim a shallow victory. But the damage was done, and confusion remains. The president continues to subject the country to agonizing pain, fear, and chronic economic dislocations. This was all done in order to cure an economic situation that did not require his intervention.

Before the President’s actions, knowledgeable observers believed that the American economy was the most successful and admired in the world. Only months earlier, Trump had campaigned on lower prices, lower taxes, removal of impediments to business growth and his support for cryptocurrency. Republicans were looking forward to an extended period of prosperity, built on the previous administration’s low unemployment and booming stock market.

Instead, Trump’s voters were rewarded with a President determined to break the economic system and to slow growth. According to the Economist, “On April 2^nd, Trump, spurred on by his delusions, announced the biggest break in America’s trade policy in over a century – and committed the most profound, harmful, and unnecessary economic error in the modern era.” The conservative editorial board of the Wall Street Journal expressed similar concerns. “If Mr. Trump’s tariffs end up raising prices, slowing growth and increasing unemployment, Republicans who have gone along will likely break ranks, with expressions of resentment at having been pressured into supporting policies they don’t believe in…President Trump should fear the blowback from a governing strategy largely built on fear.”

While tariffs are the story driving the headlines, Trump has caused indefensible harm against America in other areas as well. First, Trump and his DOGE layoffs of Federal employees have jeopardized essential services on which Americans rely. These indiscriminate terminations threaten critical agency objectives in everything from medical research to providing memorable experiences in our National Parks. Trump’s actions have made it more difficult to keep Americans safe and healthy in our airports, in the products we purchase, and in combating contagious disease. We are learning quickly that there is nothing efficient connected with “chainsaw” mass firings. However, there are extensive losses to basic protections.

Second, universities in America are under attack. The Trump administration is pretending to punish our most revered educational institutions for their alleged compliance with or support for “antisemitism” and diversity initiatives. The real targets are academic freedom and freedom of speech which threaten Trump’s plans for autocratic rule. Universities that support – or even tolerate – protests, research, or speech that goes against the preferences of the Trump administration are investigated, and their federal funding is frozen or cut. If Trump succeeds, a cornerstone of the American educational system will be lost.

My last example of Trump’s unwarranted harm (there are many others) is to the rule of law.  Our laws, as interpreted by our courts, are sacrosanct.  Democracy works because no one is above the law. Trump’s course of revenge and retribution against former employees, lawyers, law firms and judges must be stopped if our form of government is to survive.