I have heard, “Trump is a poor man’s version of a rich man,” and as we pass his first 100 days, this feels as true as ever. Trump represents what the low to moderate income American aspires to be: so economically privileged that you can be unapologetic and aggressive without consequence.

Donald Trump does not have to consider the weight of his actions, even as the President of the United States, and he is gifted the ability to waffle through starting a trade war. Now, as we sit at the precipice of an economic recession, we can see the seeds of Trump’s failing economic platform with nearly a decade of political development.

In 2019, under Trump’s previous failed attempt at being on the next Mount Rushmore, tariff revenue soared past the trends of the last thirty years and amassed a total $79 billion. A positive signal of tariff efficacy, perhaps?

Unfortunately, JP Morgan forecasted that those tariffs may have cost every household up to $1,000 that year, while the National Bureau of Economic Research reported that it was closer to $831. Regardless, if you multiply either number by the 128 million American households, the costs to consumers significantly outweighs any revenue earned through tariffs. 

Economists across the globe assert that tariffs will be passed along to the consumer, but Donald Trump, the brightest mind the world has ever seen, obviously knows best.

What is a doctorate in economics when you’ve learned how to lead a company to bankruptcy four times? In regards to education, Trump must have, at one point, valued the Bachelors that his father persuaded UPenn to give him; however, Ivy Leagues are apparently just breeding grounds for “woke” ideology.

Nevermind Harvard’s recent innovations in cancer imaging when Trump is without the control he desires. His retaliatory funding freezes of scientific research have no correlation to his false claims of antisemitism, and 100 days after being in office, he has still failed to deliver on an economy so good that “you’ll be tired of winning.”

Donald Trump’s current tariff policy seeks to reinstate an American economy dependent upon large-scale manufacturing, and that is just not the America that the 21st-century’s working class is eager to live in. I don’t desire to work a factory job, and presumably, neither do you. 

In fact, despite Donald Trump’s desire to increase the amount of American manufacturing jobs through his trade war, there are over half a million open manufacturing jobs today. As Cato’s Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies has put, the problem is finding enough interested Americans to even work those positions.

And just when you thought Donald Trump was done, he targeted student loans. Good thing he’s making college more affordable by threatening the Department of Education.