Trump has Not “Drained the Swamp”. He has Increased and Spread the Swamp
Philip Kotler
I wrote the following article knowing that most of my readers already know many of these things about Trump and his policies. However, I thought collecting them in one place will help readers view the damage that Trump is doing to our citizens and to America’s image abroad. The four great American Presidents at Mount Rushmore all have tears in their eyes. All their work to build an amazing country and democracy wasted by one man. Trump has not “drained the swamp.” He has enlarged the swamp.
Trump Becomes President for the Second Term
Americans voted Trump in for a second Presidential term based on Trump’s three mandates: 1. Fight inflation, 2. End the inflow of illegal migrants and aggressively get illegals out of the country. 3. Reduce government waste.
How has he done? Regarding inflation, prices remain high and consumers are doing everything to cut their overall spending and stockpiling important goods before they become unavailable. Trump has temporarily postponed his tariffs plans but soon expects to push tough tariffs on allies as well as on China and other countries. Economists of both political parties view tariffs as most likely to shoot up inflation and probably produce a recession as many workers lose their jobs.
Yes, Trump has managed to stop the inflow of illegal migrants. He is also aggressively using ICE agents to mass arrest and deport existing illegals. He has left them with no legal recourse and he is indifferent to breaking up families. Many illegals have been in the U.S. working in rural areas or in cities that Americans don’t want to do. His policy may harm our agricultural output, cause food shortages and reduce urban care for our weaker and older citizens.
Trump’s approach to reducing government waste was to establish Doge (Department of Government Efficiency) under the leadership of Elon Musk who proceeded to do wholesale firings of IRS federal workers engaged in checking on tax dodgers, firings of weather scientists who predict hurricanes and deal with climate change, and scientific research projects that focus on cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. Now we learn that Elon Musk was using drugs which may explain his heartless brutality toward all federal workers. Musk claimed much more government fraud existed than he could find.
All told, Trump got mixed results from the three goals he advertised to voters.
Trump Initiated Many Other Scorch-earth Policies.
Trump came into the Presidency with much more on his mind. He wanted to erase all of Biden’s democratic policies and remove all democratic thinkers from his administration. He called them Woke and replaced them with largely unqualified administrators, such as the Defense Department led by a known alcoholic, Pete Hegseth and the Health Department headed by a not-medically trained person, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who wars against vaccines and fluoride added to the water system.
Trump began his administration by cancelling or downgrading various policies on his own discretion without full Congressional approval.
· Cutting down climate change policies and increasing the production of oil, gas, and coal. Reducing the policy of subsidizing electric car purchase.
· Reducing Medicaid in spite of saying everyone would get medical care.
· Reducing Social Security benefits.
· Eliminating the Education Department.
· Cutting the national parks budget.
· Attacking higher education policies at Columbia, Harvard, Northwestern and other universities and using withholding of research funds and denying visas to foreign students.
· Attacking judges and the judicial system.
· Attacking law firms and the rule of law.
· Attacking the media for making “fake news” and hoping to eliminate CBS and MSNBC.
· Withdrawing or reducing promised funds supporting science research projects.
· Aiming to privatize the U.S. Postal Service
What Chaos Has Trump Created?
Trump has done everything possible to divide the country into winners and losers. He calls the Democrats “scum”, mocks major urban cities such as New York City and San Francisco, and assaults liberals and left-wing parties. He has insisted that companies and schools stop using DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) policies. He seeks to reduce the power of Black Americans and the voices of those belonging to LGBTQ communities. In lashing out at multiculturalism, he seeks to replace it with a largely white society.
Trump has an illiberal view of protests, even peace protests. He thinks that current protests are all engineered by liberals. He sent American troops and National Guard units into San Francisco against the objections of California’s governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass.
American consumers and businesses are highly concerned with what is happening to our democracy. Many Americans now avoid sharing their concerns or fears. To Trump, every protestor is an enemy who he would prefer to send out of the country.
To complicate matters further, Trump wants to increase military spending and show his toughness to his enemies. He states that he admires leading authoritarians and calls them friends: Putin of Russia, XI Jinping of China, Viktor Orban of Hungary, and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey. Trump is comfortable with Benjamin Netanyahu’s war in Gaza which he would like to convert into a giant new resort community. Trump is more comfortable with Russia’s attack on Ukraine and wants their leader Zelenskyy to make more concessions to Russia.
Meanwhile, Trump has told the world that Canada should be annexed to the U.S. as it 51st state. He wants ownership of Greenland and wants to run the Panama Canal and maybe Panama.
In the midst of all this chaotic drama, Trump and his family are nakedly gaining greater wealth. Trump accepted a $400 million Boeing 747 jumbo jet from Quatar. Trump favors the expansion of cryptocurrency and has launched a stable coin managed by his son with gains going into a Trump trust fund. Trump has his sons building profitable Trump hotels and golf courses in foreign country that are eager to please Trump. And now the Trump are launching a cell phone.
Trump has made it clear that much of his effort to cut government costs is to enable the country to reduce the income taxes of the rich. He would like to go further and eliminate income taxes altogether and increase sales taxes that primarily hurt the poor.
Trump has told the American people that he wants to be a dictator and that he is their savior who was saved from a bullet and chosen by God to make America Great Again.
