Why Was Trumponomics a Flop?

To be fair, the economy remains pretty strong, which isn't really a surprise given the G.O.P.'s willingness to run huge budget deficits as long as Democrats don't hold the White House. As I wrote three days after the 2016 election -- after the shock had worn off -- "It's at least possible that bigger budget deficits will, if anything, strengthen the economy briefly." And that's pretty much what happened: There was a bit of a bump in 2018, but at this point we've basically returned to pre-Trump rates of growth.

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And there's a good case to be made that Trump's tariffs have actually hurt U.S. manufacturing. For one thing, many of them have hit "intermediate goods," that is, stuff American companies use in their production processes, so the tariffs have raised costs.

Beyond that, the uncertainty created by Trump's policy by whim -- nobody knows what he'll hit next -- has surely deterred investment. Why build a manufacturing plant when, for all you know, next week a tweet will destroy your market, your supply chain, or both?

... think of the missed opportunities. Imagine how much better shape we'd be in if the hundreds of billions squandered on tax cuts for corporations had been used to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure. Imagine what we could have done with policies promoting jobs of the future in things like renewable energy, instead of trade wars that vainly attempt to recreate the manufacturing economy of the past.

... pundits who think that Trump will be able to win by touting a strong economy are almost surely wrong. He most likely won't face a recession (although who knows?), but he definitely hasn't made the economy great again. So he's probably going to have to do what he's already doing, and clearly wants to do: run on racism instead.