Honestly, I don’t totally comprehend Trump-ese. No one does. Not even him.
Everything he says seems to have been Google translated from English to Cantonese to Zapf Dingbats and back to English.
But, hey, it sure sounds like Donald Trump just stated that he’s willing to take a few swats at entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare because … the economy.
From a CNBC interview from Davos, Switzerland, this morning with journalist Joe Kernan:
JOE KERNEN: Do I dare-- one last question.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Go ahead.
JOE KERNEN: Entitlements ever be on your plate?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: At some point they will be. We have tremendous growth. We’re going to have tremendous growth. This next year I-- it’ll be toward the end of the year. The growth is going to be incredible. And at the right time, we will take a look at that. You know, that’s actually the easiest of all things, if you look, cause it’s such a--
JOE KERNEN: If you’re willing--
PRESIDENT TRUMP: --big percentage.
JOE KERNEN: --to do some of the things that you said you wouldn’t do in the past, though, in terms of Medicare--
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, we’re going-- we’re going look. We also have-- assets that we’ve never had. I mean we’ve never had growth like this. We never had a consumer that was taking in, through-- different means, over $10,000 a family. We never had the kind of-- the kind of things that we have. Look, our country is the hottest in the world. We have the hottest economy in the world. We have the best unemployment numbers we’ve ever had. African American, Asian American. Hispanics are doing so incredibly. Best they’ve ever done. Black. Best they’ve ever done. African American. The numbers are incredible. The poverty numbers. The unemployment and the employment. There’s-- there is a difference, actually. But the unemployment and employment numbers for African Americans are the best we’ve ever had. You know, we just-- came up with a chart, and it was a very important to number to me. African American youth has the highest, by far, unemployment. The best unemployment numbers that they’ve ever had. And the best employment numbers. Right now we have almost 160 million people working in the United States, and we’ve never even been close to that, Joe.
- Growth has not been special, at least as it’s traditionally measured. We can’t speak for Trump’s girth because he lies about that.
- I have no idea what that $10,000 refers to. Anyone?
- Not sure how low unemployment and “increased growth” help a person who needs disability payments or Social Security retirement checks or Medicare, but then when does this guy ever make sense?
- Barack Obama lowered black unemployment — and the overall unemployment rate — far more than Trump has. In fact, job growth has actually slowed considerably since Trump took over.
- Trump promised as a candidate that he’d never touch Social Security or Medicare. Oh, noes! Did Donald Trump lie?
- Because of Trump’s tax cuts, our deficit is actually ballooning. Remember when he said he’d totally eliminate the entire national debt in eight years? Ha ha. No one will ever follow up with him on that. Anyway, not sure how that swelling deficit helps anyone on Social Security.
So there you have it. Donald Trump embraces the standard GOP playbook, which calls for big tax cuts, big deficit increases, a bunch of disingenuous handwringing over the deficit they created, and then painful cuts in social programs. Rinse. Repeat.
Except Trump does it through an Adderall fugue, and without pretending to make a lick of sense. And that’s why his cult loves him. He’s tough. And thick. He’s just a smelly cowhide, really. But, hey, that plays big in the South and West.
Is Trump still singeing your sphincter? Then Dear F*cking Lunatic: 101 Obscenely Rude Letters to Donald Trump and its super-fun sequels Dear Pr*sident A**clown: 101 More Rude Letters to Donald Trump and Dear F*cking Moron: 101 More Letters to Donald Trump by Aldous J. Pennyfarthing are the pick-me-up you need! Reviewers have called these books “hysterically funny,” “cathartic,” and “laugh-out-loud” comic relief. And they’re way, way cheaper than therapy.