At MAGA rallies, Trump has always been a rambling, semi-coherent embarrassment. He's living the fantasy of every Fox News-viewing grandpa in which regurgitating the racist, misogynistic and bigoted nonsense he sees on his teevee generates cheers and adulation from an approving crowd, as opposed to eye rolls at the dinner table and phone calls to request a tour of the nursing home.
These days, Trump is glitching more frequently, getting words wrong, getting names wrong, and contradicting himself with abandon from one day to the next. If he's not lying on purpose, he's making shit up for fun.
Even more worrying: In 2024, the mentally feeble Trump is "all over the map" even when talking behind closed doors to top CEOs.
As he slides more obviously into dementia, it's less clear how much of Trump's candidacy is the performance of a man desperate to avoid prosecution for treason and other high crimes, and how much he actually believes his own bullshit.
"Debate" is the wrong word for what's happening on Thursday
Debating him in a rational way is simply impossible. He lies with abandon, covers his stupidity with bluster, and his "big brain" hasn't been given an update since the Archie Bunker era.
For this week's "debate," the biggest challenge for Biden will be to score points amid an endless stream of lies and distortions. For moderators, they just have to maintain some semblance of control. Because, even if they wanted to, there is no possible way they'll be able to fact-check Trump's intricate, rapid-fire web of lies in real-time. The "debate" after all is only 90-minutes long.
Hopefully, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash will be prepared enough to debunk some of Trump's most oft-repeated—and most glaring—whoppers.
Here are five of the most outrageous claims still being made by Trump about the economy and crime that we need to be ready for on Thursday night.
On the economy:
Trump claim: “Under Biden, the economy is in ruins.”
Fact check 1: “U.S. growth is exceptional,’’ said Ayhan Kose, The World Bank's deputy chief economist in June 2024 as the bank upgraded its outlook for the entire global economy based on the strength of sustained growth in the United States under Biden.
Fact check 2: Biden not only led us out of the domestic ruin caused by Trump's mishandling of Covid, he re-established America as the economic powerhouse that lifted the world out of the pandemic-induced recession. Supply chain disruptions and geopolitical tensions caused inflation to spike, but Biden's policies have brought inflation way down and added 15.6 million jobs, leading to a historic low unemployment rate. Inflation is lower in 2024 than it was in 1984, when it was "Morning in America" and Reagan went on to win 49 states.
Trump claim: "We created the strongest economy in the history of the world. We had the highest stock market ever."
Fact check 1: The Trump economy was never as strong as he claimed. The Obama-Biden recovery he inherited became the longest economic expansion in US history during his term even as Trump created 1.5 million fewer jobs during his first three years than Obama created in his final three years. In 2019, US manufacturing entered a recession. At the start of 2020, even before Covid hit, US GDP growth was forecast to be below 2% meaning (according to 2012 Trump at least) that the economy was "in real trouble."
Fact check 2: Trump's mishandling of the pandemic caused US GDP to decline 3.5% in 2020—the worst year-over-year economic performance ever recorded.
Fact check 3: Trump had the worst record on jobs since Hoover. There were 3 million fewer jobs when Trump left office than when he began.
Fact check 4: The Dow hit a new all-time closing high of 40,003 on 17 May 2024, 33% higher than the highest level achieved under Trump (30,046 on 24 November 2020).
Fact check 5: The annualized return of the Dow under Trump was 11.8%, lower than the returns of 12.1% and 15.9% delivered by Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, respectively.
Trump claim: “We achieved the lowest African American unemployment rate and the lowest African American poverty rate ever recorded—ever, ever recorded— during my four years.”
Fact check 1: Trump's failed policies meant Black unemployment was already rising at the end of 2019, before surging when Covid hit. Biden reduced Black unemployment to an all-time low in 2023, below 5% for the first time in history.
Fact check 2: The record low in the Black poverty rate was 17.1%, set under Biden in 2022. The lowest level under Trump was 18.8%
On crime:
Trump claim: “Crime is rampant and out of control, like never before.”
Fact check: That may have been true when Trump was failing as President in 2020. But it's no longer true today. The latest FBI statistics show that violent crime is down and the murder rate is plunging.
Trump claim: In New York City, “you go right outside and people are being mugged and killed all day long.”
Fact check: A majority of US states have murder rates higher than New York City. Alabama’s homicide rate is 2.5X as high as New York City. The murder rates in Louisiana and Mississippi are more than 3X that of NYC.
What Trump has going for him
Two of the biggest factors helping Trump in 2024 are:
1) The insistence of the mainstream media in denigrating Biden while propping up Trump.
2) The willingness of millions of Americans to "memory-hole" what a disaster one-term loser Trump truly was, most unforgivably during his final year in office.
What Biden has going for him
The facts are on his side.
As Garzarelli Capital said this month: “The U.S. is experiencing the best economic and employment situation in over 50 years and stocks are at all-time highs.”
And Biden has every right to brag.
He's the President who beat Trumpflation AND the Trump Crime Wave.
He's taken more climate action than any U.S. President in history.
And his future-focused policies—including the Inflation Reduction Act, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and CHIPS and Science Act—have created an investment "supercycle" that will continue to create jobs and increase American competitiveness for years to come.
Thursday night's debate will underscore the differences between the two candidates.
Trump's a bullshit artist.
Biden's an effective leader who gets things done.
Another thing in Biden's favor: Unlike Trump, he doesn't have dementia.
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