The real bottom line

Let’s just cut to the chase, shall we? Time and time again, arguments I’ve had about Donald Trump with his most fanatical supporters end up in the same way: Discussion begins around whatever the news of the day is—and since there’s usually a lot of news about Trump and his administration, this is an ever-changing subject.

Maybe it’s the 82 documented contacts between the Trump team and Russia-linked operatives, not one of which was ever reported to the proper authorities, and all of which Team Trump either lied about, tried to conceal, or both.

Maybe it’s about the 191 criminal charges against 32 individuals and three businesses, with one of those individuals—Trump’s campaign manager, Paul Manafort—on trial for conspiracy and money laundering, among a host of other charges and an associate of Manafort’s who’s already been sentenced to prison.

Maybe it’s about Trump’s longtime right-hand man and “fixer,” Michael Cohen—you know, the guy whose job it was to pay off the various porn stars, Playboy Playmates, and assorted other women to prevent them from talking about their flings and affairs with the man who’s now the President of the United States—being under investigation for tax fraud.

Maybe it’s about yet another one of the ridiculous and blatantly claims that Trump seems to make up on the spot at his various pep rallies around the country—rallies put together by his aides to boost his spirits and calm his agitations as Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his investigation looms closer and closer to Trump, most of his immediate family, and his administration. One of his favorite claims—it gets roars of approval from his fans—is that “U.S. Steel is opening up seven plants.” That’s what he said a week or two ago at his Pennsylvania pep rally. (He told a Florida rally a bit earlier that “U.S. Steel just announced that they’re building six new steel mills.”) Here’s how many steel mills, or steel plants, U.S. Steel is actually opening: Zero. Says who? Says U.S. Steel.

Point these sorts of things out to the fervent, rabid Trump cheerleader, though, and two things generally happen: First, they go to their get-out-of-jail-free card: “FAKE NEWS!!!” they cry, they write, they post, they repeat, they repeat, they repeat. The true Trump fanboy or fangirl believes that saying these two words often enough and loud enough will deliver them from any evil that the Libtard Fake News Media tries to perpetrate upon their knight in shining armor.

Thankfully, though, there’s another kind of Trump cheerleader out there—one who actually believes in such old-fashioned concepts as “facts” and “direct quotes.” Sometimes, these people are less Trump supporters, in fact, and more like “Trump tolerators.” In either case, their fallback argument is some variation on this: “Why do you have to keep pointing out all the bad stuff? Why don’t you talk about the good stuff Trump is doing—like the economy?”

The problem, of course, is that “the economy” can mean almost anything you want it to mean. It’s a great photo op to invite Harley-Davidson executives to the White House and talk about how he’s single-handedly keeping them and companies like them in the United States, where they’re thriving and expanding. When the same company announces that they have to shut down a factory in Kansas City because Trump’s trade wars mean that their motorcycles will cost an average of $2,200 more, you’d think Trump would do the usual Trump thing and just pretend it’s not happening. You’d be wrong: Trump attacked Harley-Davidson like all brave truth-tellers do—by typing with his thumbs on his phone’s Twitter app—writing, “I’ve done so much for you, and then this?” Then he announced that, in retaliation, he’d be reaching out to rival motorcycle companies to give them support. In other words, the President of the United States said he was actively trying to put an iconic American company out of business.

Of course, there are more obvious ways of measuring the economy. Is the stock market up? Certainly: The S&P 500 index is up 21.2 percent in Trump’s first year in office. (During the same time during President Obama’s administration, it jumped 33.7 percent.) And if you’re one of the wealthiest 20 percent of Americans who own more than 90 percent of all stocks, this is great news for you. (The rest of us—even those of us with sensible 401K plans—aren’t seeing much of these gains.) Also up: The number of Americans living in their vehicles. That number rose 46 percent last year. Unemployment is indeed low (again, it dropped much more steeply under Obama), but actual wages are down. Virtually none of the indexes that Trump boasts about at his rallies as “all-time records” are anything close to an all-time record. In almost every case, the stat was bested by not only Obama but by many other presidents. Forty percent of Americans don’t have enough saved up to cover a $400 emergency expense—a medical bill or a car or home repair—and 43 percent of us don’t earn enough to cover our expenses for housing, food, child care, health care, transportation, and a cell phone, but sure: Keep talking about the stock market.

Let’s also consider the bigger picture: Even Trump supporters are willing to admit that Trump lies about his ties with Russia, about his marriage, his various mistresses and flings and affairs and one-night stands and his undercover payoffs of these women, his business, his taxes, Democrats in general, steel plants, the size of his inauguration crowd, nonexistent voter fraud, the media, his budgets, and basically anything else emerging from his mouth in word form—but somehow they have a gut sense that he’s telling the truth about the economy.

Does that make sense to you?