Almost two years ago, 77,303,573 Americans voted for Donald Trump. I think they picked the dumbest human on earth for the most powerful job on earth, and I’m done being polite about it. That’s my opinion. The receipts below are not.
Prices were the pitch. At a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, he said “Groceries, cars – everything. We’re going to get the prices down.” PolitiFact’s MAGA-Meter currently rates that promise Stalled, which is a generous word for it. Food at home is up 4 percent since November 2024, on top of a 23 percent jump in the four years before. He promised gas below $2 a gallon. As of Friday it’s $4.37, up 47 percent since the day before the Iran war started, according to CBS News. He promised 2 percent mortgages. They’re at 7.28 percent, worse than the 7.04 percent when he took office.
Then there are the tariffs. Tariffs are a tax on the people buying stuff, and I’ve said so for a while. The Supreme Court ruled in February that the emergency law he used doesn’t allow them at all. About $166 billion had already been collected. The refunds go to importers who file claims, so the shoppers who paid it at the register get to watch someone else cash the check. I wrote about the promised $5,000 dividend last week, and that one is still the funniest part of this whole mess, if you can laugh at a $1.35 trillion hole.
His own numbers say people noticed. Silver Bulletin’s average has his net approval on inflation at minus 48.5 and on the economy at minus 33.2, an all-time low. Overall he’s at minus 21.9.
Now the part nobody wants to hear. Trump never hid the tariff talk. It was on the table in 2024, and roughly 77 million of you looked at it and still decided he was the answer. He wasn’t a mystery. He was a choice.
I’m not saying every one of those voters is dumb. Plenty are smart people who got talked into something, and anyone who tells you they’ve never been sold a bad car knows nothing about the auto industry. But a salesman only works if the buyer signs. You signed. Some of you signed because you hated the other option, which I get, and some because the prices were supposed to drop.
I don’t want a new party in charge here. Both sides spend like they’re being chased, and I have no love for the people waiting to take over. I want somebody who does what they said, and I’d like it to happen without the Supreme Court having to step in.
The good news is you get a redo of sorts. The midterms are November 3. Whoever you vote for, look at what you were promised last time and ask whether the person asking for your vote actually delivered. That’s the only test that matters, and it’s free.
My two cents: a voter who got burned has every right to be angry, but the anger only counts if it shows up on a ballot.