Believing Donald Trump can be higher for the economic system than Vice President Kamala Harris is like considering you’re a dinner visitor if you’re really the primary course.
There’s a motive three billionaires — together with Elon Musk — poured $220 million into Trump’s reelection bid this summer season, and it’s not as a result of they felt the pinch when the worth of a gallon of milk went up a few years ago. It’s as a result of the previous president has a confirmed report of serving to the ultra-rich get richer on the expense of common Individuals.
Trump’s 2017 tax cuts were crafted to mostly benefit the wealthiest 20%. These on the very high actually cashed in. America’s 748 billionaires reaped $2.2 trillion after the cuts went into impact.
When Trump slashed the company tax fee, his Council of Financial Advisers promised American employees would see at least $4,000 added to their backside line — the outdated “trickle-down economics” gross sales pitch once more.
It didn’t work beneath Ronald Reagan, and it clearly didn’t occur beneath Trump.
In 2018 alone, one evaluation of S&P 500 firms discovered greater than 80% of the cash firms obtained in tax breaks was paid out to owners of the companies, and solely 20% was reinvested into the enterprise. Shock — the tax financial savings didn’t trickle down to workers or encourage economic growth.
And within the first 12 months of the pandemic, when tens of millions of Individuals had been shedding their jobs? That’s when lots of of American billionaires got $1.2 trillion richer.
Taxes are an enormous a part of this story.
Reportedly Musk, ranked as the world’s richest person, paid roughly 3% in taxes from 2014-18. The typical American pays more like 15%.
If you happen to assume Trump can be good for the economic system, you simply is likely to be a billionaire.
Not that Trump’s billionaire followers are fixated solely on American taxes. The ultra-rich around the globe are thriving since Trump’s wealth switch started, with the richest 1% grabbing two-thirds of the new wealth that was created between 2020 and 2023. They’ve helped Trump past simply marketing campaign donations.
In response to the Wall Avenue Journal, Musk has been regularly chatting with Russian President Vladimir Putin since 2022, simply as Trump is reported to have had many private phone calls with the dictator since leaving the White Home. Operatives for Putin — whose hidden assets have been estimated to rival Musk’s fortune — used faux social media accounts to help elect Trump in 2016. (The Justice Division mentioned final month that Russia is at it again, by the best way.)
We don’t get many glimpses into the key dealings of billionaires, however there was a knowledge leak in 2016 that mirrored poorly on them. The Panama Papers uncovered a community of shell firms utilized by the world’s ultra-rich to keep away from paying taxes of their international locations. Though the U.S. sentenced one taxpayer to prison in 2020 for associated fraud, cash laundering and different crimes, 28 individuals charged in Panama had been acquitted simply this summer season.
The fallout from this and different information leaks might not be over but. The Panama Papers implicated some world leaders, together with the prime minister of Iceland, who resigned. Putin and some of Russia’s oligarchs are mentioned. The Paradise Papers, an analogous information leak made public in 2017, implicated Trump Cabinet members, advisors and major donors. Maybe the previous president’s pending trials and his 34 felony convictions are likely to eclipse these monetary troubles in Individuals’ minds.
I’m undecided why poor Individuals would imagine Trump’s financial insurance policies would assist them in any method.
Possibly some Individuals consider rising incomes and credit score Trump for these. However the increase in wages that employees presently take pleasure in largely took place due to work stoppages led by unions and a supportive Biden White Home. Trump and Musk don’t need union employees. They speak overtly about their disdain for paying extra time. The truth is, Challenge 2025 — the blueprint for a way a second Trump administration would reshape the federal government round him — would make it simpler for firms to keep away from paying employees additional for longer days.
Possibly some Individuals recall direct help from the federal authorities early within the pandemic and picture Trump was behind these checks. He wasn’t. The three rounds of stimulus aid — together with the notorious test that has Trump’s identify on it — took place as a result of Democrats in Congress pushed to assist struggling Individuals, not due to Republican compassion. When the American Rescue Plan handed the Senate 50-49 in March 2021, each single Republican voted in opposition to it.
The U.S. economic system endured the pandemic regardless of Trump’s mishandling, not as a result of he steered the ship effectively. American employees are lastly seeing some beneficial properties, and inflation has slowed again to regular ranges. That’s solely as a result of Biden and Harris have been in a position to undo a few of the harm the earlier administration did.
Trump campaigns as if he’s an Everyman, however when he was in workplace he confirmed who he actually seems to be out for — and it isn’t the American employee.
