I recently had a Trump supporter ask me how I'm so sure that his economic policies won't work.
I laughed — then I said, you're joking, right?
The question really should be: Why would anyone think someone who's failed at basically every business he's ever created would know how to run a country?
I asked them to name one thriving, successful business he's created that wasn't just a wealth generator for himself. As in, name something tangible with Trump's name on it that he's created that actually is seen as a "success."
His biggest "success" is conning people into thinking he's a "success."
Sure, he's built a few buildings, but the majority of the ones that have his name on them, he had little to do with outside of licensing his name to be put on them.
To be fair, that is a level of successful marketing — but he's marketing a lie. That lie being that he's a "hugely successful businessman."
You can put "Trump" in front of a ton of nouns, and you would list one of his many business failures.
Trump: Magazine, Vodka, Steaks, Mortgage, University, Shuttle, all the various names of his hotels and casinos — all massive failures.
For example, here's how long some of his many business failures lasted:
Trump Taj Mahal: Roughly 15 months
Trump Shuttle: 3 years
Trump University (which was a scam): 5 years
Trump Mortgage: Roughly 18 months
Trump Steaks: 2 months
GoTrump.com: Roughly 12 months
Trump Magazine: 3 years
And there's so much context, such as Trump University being nothing but a scam; Trump Magazine being something he started right at the dawn of the digital age of media; Trump Mortgage being something he launched at what he called the "perfect time" to start a mortgage company, just before the worst housing collapse in history; and the fact that he's run every single casino — entities designed to make the house money — out of business.
I mean, come on — he literally started a mortgage company just before the worst housing crash we've ever seen. You can't make that up when it comes to terrible instincts as a businessperson.
Then there's his foundation, which he shut down after he was caught stealing funds from it for his own personal use.
The list goes on and on.
His greatest "success" is his role playing a fake CEO on a fake reality TV show where fake employees did fake work tasks and he fake fired them.
Everything about his image of a "massively successful businessman" is based on total bullsh*t.
That's why I don't trust his economic policies.
We're over 18 months into his second term, and look at the damage he's done. Literally every major economic metric is worse now than when he took over. He's singlehandedly responsible for inflation hitting three-year highs and diesel prices setting new records.
Despite his asinine tariffs, our trade deficit in 2025 was no better than in 2024, and the "goods" deficit actually grew.
The only thing his tariffs did was force every American to pay more for damn near everything.
His current trade war with Canada — you know how idiotic this is? This is a president who's trashing the trade agreement we have with the Canadians — the same trade agreement he signed and boasted about during his first administration.
The moron is literally trashing his own trade agreement. That's how ridiculous his attacks on Canada have been.
His entire reputation as a businessman was built on screwing over small businesses and contractors, racking up bankruptcies and failures, and being so toxic that he was basically run out of New York City because no one wanted to do business with him.
Besides, what has he ever said he would do economically that's actually come true?
Did he "very easily" end deficits and pay off the national debt?
Nope.
Did he "cut electric bills in half during his first 12 months"?
Nope.
Did we ever get DOGE rebate checks or tariff dividend payments?
Nope.
Did his tax cuts even reduce our deficits?
Nope.
Did his tariffs lower our trade deficits?
Nope.
Did he get Mexico to pay for his wall?
Nope.
Even this whole delusion about him being a "master negotiator" — based on what evidence?
He didn't "very easily" end the war in Ukraine; he can't get out of his disastrous war in Iran; and his big promise of "90 trade deals in 90 days" that expired well over a year ago never came anywhere close to being a reality. At best, he signed a handful of tentative outlines of an agreement, but no in-depth, detailed trade deals — and damn sure not 90 of them.
Remember when he said Barack Obama would start a war with Iran because he was a "weak and ineffective negotiator"? Well, our 44th president never started that war — but Trump sure as heck did.
So, I guess according to Trump, he's a "weak and ineffective negotiator"?
His only "negotiation" tactic is to try to bully other people into doing what he wants, then throw hissy fits when anyone pushes back against him.
That's literally it.
That's the end of his "negotiation strategy."
Even his boasting about the economy being "better than ever" is all 100% total bullsh*t. There's no major economic metric anywhere that's better now than even when he took office — let alone "the best ever."
Just like everything about him, it's just his attempt to market failure as "success."
He reminds me of a sales guy I worked with who I couldn't stand. We had a new CFO come in who wasn't a fan of him either. One day, the CFO asked me what I thought of him. My answer was, "His best skill is selling himself as a great salesperson — but he sucks, hardly sells, and doesn't make us any money."
That's Trump.
His greatest "success" is being a con artist who, to his credit, did a great job marketing a failure as a businessman as "successful." It's why I've called him possibly the greatest con man in human history.
So, that's why I don't trust his economic policies — because there's nothing in Donald Trump's past or present that tells me he's anything more than an incompetent, narcissistic, total f*cking idiot whose best "skill" is somehow convincing others that he's successful, despite a resume filled with unethical business practices, screwing over anyone he needed to in order to get ahead, and a long list of failed businesses and poor decisions.
