Trump Jr. Takes Mountaineers For Chumps In Recent Op-Ed
Donald Trump recently visited my hometown, Wheeling, WV. The campaign stop made national headlines when Trump declared his love for North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
And in advance of his visit, Donald Trump Junior wrote an op-ed to Wheeling’s newspaper, The Intelligencer/ Wheeling News-Register.
It was offensive, simply put. Here’s why.
Don Jr. started with a true premise about globalization: Wheeling, West Virginia is the perfect example of the dangers of globalism. This is not a shocking statement, and progressive Democrats have been saying this for decades.
Everything Trump Jr. wrote from there falls into one of three categories though: outright lies; stories about individuals; and blatant misrepresentations.
Trump Jr. claims that Republicans in Congress have helped the President fight globalization. That’s an outright lie. Congressional Republicans haven’t done anything to roll back “globalization.” Trump has used his executive authority to undo some pro-globalization trade deals. But Republicans in Congress haven’t helped in the least.
And historically, Congressional Republicans have been the biggest supporters of globalization.
Just look at the voting record over the last forty years. Before Trump took office, most Republicans voted for every single trade deal that passed Congress. Congressional Democrats stood in opposition. Every. Single. Time.
Here’s a sample:
NAFTA? Passed the Senate with 34 Republican votes and only 27 Democratic votes. And despite the GOP fixation on Bill Clinton, NAFTA may have been put in the dustbin of history in the 1990s without those 34 Republican votes.
CAFTA? Forty-three Senate Republicans votes for it, and only 10 Democrats. Thirty-three Democrats voted against it, including then-Senator Barack Obama.
Korean Free Trade? 219 House Republicans voted for it, while 123 Democrats voted against it. Only 21 House Republicans voted against it. That’s a ratio of 10:1 House Republicans that voted FOR Korean Free Trade. Similarly, Republicans in the House voted at a rate of 39 to 1 FOR the Panama Free Trade Agreement; and at a rate of 25 to 1 FOR the Colombia Free Trade Agreement.
Who voted to give President Obama (and Donald Trump) extra-Constitutional authority on trade? That’s right, Republicans in Congress! Of the 62 ‘Yea’ Senate votes for the Trade Act of 2015, 48 of them were Senate Republicans! On the other hand, 30 of the 37 ‘No’ votes came from Senate Democrats.
Trump Jr. is clearly hoping no one will check the record on trade. The list of trade deals that Republicans have crammed through Congress goes on, but I’d like to turn my attention to Trump Jr.’s victory lap about business confidence.
If you read his article, he only discusses how business owners *feel* about the tax cuts. No hard numbers. There’s no doubt that it’s a good thing that Wheeling and Warwood business owners have more confidence — but there’s significant doubt as to whether Trump’s tax bill will deliver on the lofty promises that create that confidence.
As far as real numbers, the only verifiable one that he presents is this extremely dubious claim: “Thanks to the Trump Tax Cuts, the average married couple with two children in Wheeling will save over $2,000 on their tax bill.”
First, it’s an average number. I can assure everyone reading this that Wheeling Country Club members will bring home the bulk of that. If we remove the top earners from the average, that figure drops. By a lot.
The non-partisan Tax Policy Center points out that households earning between $49,000 and $86,000 will get an average tax cut of only $930. Wheeling’s average income is closer to $35,000. And, with this tax giveaway, the less you make, the less you get back.
The only way that Trump Jr. can come up with his $2000 figure is by averaging in Wheeling’s wealthy elite in with families who are working three jobs between two parents. It’s not quite an outright lie, but it’s blatantly misleading.
Beyond that, the Government Accountability Office now estimates that at least 30 million individuals are under-withholding their taxes in 2018, and that they will end up paying more than they’ve accounted for come Tax Day, April 2019.
Why don’t Republicans care about that? Because that’s after the November 2018 Midterms.
Finally. Why didn’t Trump Jr. mention his father’s favorite metric: Unemployment?
Looking at the seasonally adjusted figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, he didn’t mention the unemployment rate because West Virginia’s unemployment rate increased by .1% between August 2017 and August 2018. West Virginia is #47 out of all 50 states in terms of how many jobs have been gained over the last year.
In short, Donald Trump, Jr. isn’t just wrong. He’s lying to us. He’s just another slick-haired New York City real estate huckster and he’s hoping that West Virginians will believe anything he says, just because his last name isn’t “Clinton”.
Based on Trump Jr.’s offensively misleading op-ed, I’m surprised that the Trumps’ visit to Wheeling didn’t end with an auction to replace the Wheeling Suspension Bridge with one from Brooklyn.
