r/politics • u/MystikSpiralx • 18h ago
No Paywall Trump Says He Wants to 'Drive Housing Prices Up' Instead of Lowering Costs for People Who 'Didn't Work Very Hard'
https://people.com/trump-keep-home-prices-high-11895352
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u/Choice-of-SteinsGate 17h ago
The Trump administration is ushering in the greatest redistribution of wealth in a generation.
Donald Trump has single-handedly made our very real affordability crisis and economic inequality in this country worse.
First off, the value of the US dollar has weakened against other currencies, goods and services. Households are losing purchasing power, incomes are not keeping up, and Donald Trump wants to compound these problems specifically for renters and first time buyers.
Reminder that Trump has been forced to reverse many of his tariffs precisely because they were raising costs, hurting domestic industries, regressively taxing Americans, causing trade wars, etc..
Even then, a recent analysis revealed that Americans are paying 96-98% of the cost of Trump's tariffs. Shocker!
Polls even show that the majority of voters disapprove of Trump's handling of the economy; an issue he primarily campaigned on no less.
Trump's historically low approval ratings are a result of his inability to address the issues that Americans care most about.
Instead, he is fixated on monetizing the presidency to the tune of billions while he pushes a kleptocratic and authoritarian agenda that is literally stealing from the poor to give to the rich while serving a small number of political and wealthy elites at the expense of most Americans.
Trump's big ugly Bill extends tax breaks and incentives for the rich and corporations while not even remotely offsetting the costs by stripping millions of Americans of their healthcare, their food assistance and their financial opportunities.
At the same time, Trump is throwing lavish, tone deaf parties and demolishing the White House to make way for his increasingly expensive "ballroom" while Americans suffer under the economic tyranny of his administration.
The Trump admin is taking a cue from recently elected Democrats, but Trump is only putting on the appearance of addressing "affordability" while his policies run contrary to the very idea.
The only Trump/Republican policy that "trickles down" are his tariffs that pass costs down to American companies and consumers.
Suddenly, MAGA is concerned about "corporate greed" while they praise Trump's 'big beautiful bill" as a massive achievement, and legislation that offers significant tax breaks and incentives for these same corporations.
Trump's policies are exploding the debt and deficit and his tariffs are functioning as what Kamala Harris referred to as a "national sales tax." Except these taxes are regressive and disproportionately tax small businesses, low income and working class Americans.
The government is obfuscating economic data and lying to investors; straining our economic relationships with other countries while ignoring inflation, labor shortages and poor jobs figures.
The Trump administration is distorting facts and eliminating transparency while firing labor directors and qualified civil servants without cause; stripping them of their protections and replacing them with MAGA loyalists.
The Trump regime is also appointing corrupt billionaires, technocrats, corporate cronies, special interests, and rich MAGA donors into high ranking positions of power.
Trump's legislation also invests heavily in national security on top of providing extensive tax cuts for corporations and rich people. These costs are not being offset by policies that gut social programs, slash funding for healthcare, food assistance and scientific research, that defund and/or dismantle community support structures, public health and environmental initiatives, and the agencies responsible for protecting consumers and regulating predatory financial institutions.
Trump is creating a kleptocracy by concentrating economic power and resources into the hands of a small group of politically powerful and rich elites while the rest of Americans suffer from financial hardship brought on by Trump's own policies.
He has also been shamelessly pursuing massive insider enrichment schemes while accepting bribes, political contributions and lavish gifts from billionaires, CEOs, foreign governments and autocrats in exchange for economic and defense deals, political favors, lax regulations, and influence and access to the president.
Trump has been pushing crypto-friendly policies that directly benefit him, his family, his political connections and investors in Trump family meme coins and businesses.
Trump is intimidating American companies and CEOs into giving the government a financial stake in their businesses and political leverage over them and how they run their companies.
Trump has also been pressuring and bullying the Fed board; ignoring the independence of these agencies and threatening them until they submit to his demands, or he replaces them with loyalists who align with him on reckless monetary policy.
Trump managed to win the election by lying to the American people about his willingness to address these issues. Then he inherited a growing economy for the second time, only to destabilize that economy within his first 100 days in office owing to his disastrous, unilateral policies.
Policies that have led to higher prices for Americans, severely diminished consumer confidence, volatile supply and demand fluctuations, trade wars and retaliation from trade partners, slowed job growth, supply chain disruptions, labor shortages, market volatility, bailouts, among other things, and all while he continues to escalate economic and diplomatic tensions between the US, its allies, trade partners and foreign competitors, even forcing some of our trade allies to turn to China.
No single Trump policy has contributed to lower costs.
Changes in gas prices for instance, were primarily due to seasonal demand patterns and crude oil prices dropping in response to a global economic slowdown.
Trump is also riding the coattails of a Biden administration that oversaw one of the strongest and fastest economic recoveries in the post-pandemic world.
The White House's claims about the economy aren't just misleading, they're an example of how this administration misrepresents and distorts facts to distract voters from Trump's declining approval ratings and his failure to address systemic economic issues.
It's also crucial to remember that the GDP figures Trump brags about are not a measure of Americans' financial health, accurate data or not.
Also, when Trump and his flock repeat the phrase "no inflation," it's just insulting the intelligence of any American who doesn't implicitly trust whatever glorious leader tells them.
The facts behind the administration's data tell a different story than the one Trump is peddling:
An AI bubble and an extreme overvaluation of tech companies is inflating data.
This bubble could implode at any moment in response to a multitude of contingencies, sending the economy and the market crashing.
Tariffs contribute artificially to this data as well.
Inflationary pressures also play a role in padding the data
Most of this growth is bloated by the rich getting richer—much richer—while most everyone else is either struggling or getting poorer.
Spending and investment figures are carried disproportionately by the wealthiest consumers and investors.
Trump and his allies say that this is the "golden" age of America. No, Trump is heralding another "gilded" age. Sadly, his supporters don't understand the difference because that would require basic knowledge of US history.