Donald Trump just got bad news at the worst possible time
Trade wars aren’t so easy to win, contrary to what Donald Trump tweeted a year ago as he began his pointless standoff with China. In the ensuing months, we’ve seen the stock market go off a cliff, erasing the gains Trump likes to brag about. He’s decided to switch gears by blaming the media for the damage of his trade war and his poor approval ratings, now that he can’t really brag about the stock market or for that matter, lie about how the trade war is progressing. He’s reduced to making vague claims on Twitter – saying that any day now, China will begin investing in American agricultural products once again, with no new agreement in place.
Now we’re beginning to see the impact his trade war has on the average consumer – just as Trump, who famously doesn’t like to juggle more than one task at a time, is facing both an impeachment inquiry and an investigation of the Trump Organization from New York state. According to the latest report from Moody’s Analytics released this week, Trump’s trade war has already cost 300,000 American jobs – both due to company losses and jobs not created due to the rising prices and stagnation.
Going at its current pace, Trump’s economy could kill 450,000 jobs by the end of the year, and as many as 900,000 by the end of 2020 – consistent with an earlier projection that the economy next year may not grow far beyond one percent. America’s manufacturing sector is already in recession.
These numbers could not come for Donald Trump at a worse time as he’s already facing a difficult re-election and has no real justification for why voters should put their own jobs on the line to help him. Of course, it would be wrong for anyone to hope for a recession in the near future, not only because of the people who would suffer directly, but because a recession helped pave the way for Donald Trump in the first place, along with many of the strongman politicians we’re seeing take power across the globe.
James Sullivan is the assistant editor of Brain World Magazine and an advocate of science-based policy making