President Trump continues to break all the modes of behavior of past presidents as he focuses on appealing to his base and allegedly fulfilling his promises.  He continues to lie more and more, six a day his first year (Washington Post) and 16 a day his second year (New York Times) and recently 24 a day in a recent campaign week (New York Times).  He claims to be winning all the time and attacks his enemies all the time.  He attacks everyone in sight one time or another, intimidating his own political party into submissive following, for fear of being primaried out of office by Trump allies, if they don't go along with his lies and attacks.  He has got the Fox News network to go along except for Shepard Smith in the afternoon who fearlessly continues with reality instead of the latest Trump fantasy.  Sean Hannity seems to be his closest confidant.  How does he do it?  Unfortunately, it seems to be working as his approval, once in the thirties, is now in the forties.  Yet a powerful backlash is shaping up in the House, but he may well keep the Senate on his side.

Economic Claims

Lawyers know that if the facts are on your side, talk the facts; if the law is on your side, talk the law; if neither is on your side, pound the table and scream and shout a lot.  There's a lot of the latter going on.  But just lying as if things are going your way is the simplest Trump tactic. He takes credit for the economic trend start by Obama after the unemployment rate stopped rising in 2010.  Since then the Obama unemployment rate was dropping almost twice as fast 2011-2015 until Trump took office.  That was mostly due to a drop in military spending after pulling out of Iraq in 2011.  But Obama made the mistake Bill Clinton made at the end, using a small military buildup to "help" the Democrat running in his last year, although it hurts the economy to increase military spending, but it can help locally in some states.  2000 and 2016 slowed down in job and economic growth and increasing in unemployment rate thanks to this mistaken thinking.  Obama prolonged the delay in recovery by tripling the troops in Afghanistan during the Great Recession 2008-2009 years, leading to a six month pause at peak unemployment levels from September 2009 to February 2010.  This meant average unemployment levels for the year grew from 2009 to 2010, helping the Tea Party Republican wave election of 2010.  Back to Trump.  The Trump military buildup of his first two years continued the slower 2016 recovery for two more years.  The tax cut was not enough to offset this military buildup, and the tariffs hurt farmers and autos, while the Federal Reserve interest rate uptick was scapegoated for much of the blame.  The claim that the unemployment rate was the lowest in thirty years is meaningless because the improvement is much less than the Obama recovery years.  And the stock market was, long before it happened, predicted to rebound from the uncertainty of the 2016 election year stall, so Trump falsely claimed credit for that.  This year 2018, the stock market is in more of a stall than a good year, so Trump is mum.

Caravan News

Shepherd Smith puts this in perspective by describing the results of the April Caravan.  Then that ended up with only 14 arrests, and Bill Marr says the 7000 strong has already faded to half that number still two months away from arrival (1000 miles at 20 miles a day is fifty days).  And the Mexicans are helping, asking the refugees to stay and become Mexicans.  Then the attempted bomb attack on leading Democrats and the killing of 11 Jewish people in a Synagogue by obviously inflamed Trump supporters dampens the mood of Republicans after the Kavanaugh bump.  The October surprise looks negative for Republicans.  And Trump's claim that he is a nationalist seems to have backfired as a confirmation of white nationalism by the white supremacy movement.  If Trump is not a racist, funny how David Duke seems to consider him one of them.  The preferential treatment in favor of Southern states that voted for Trump like Texas, Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina can easily be contrasted with the shabby treatment of brown skinned Puerto Ricans in the face of their respective hurricanes.  Trump even broke up an immigration deal because he didn't want people from s**thole countries.  He even once called the White House a s**thole place.  The caravan propaganda is directly related to the mail bomber and the Synagogue shooter.

Demagogues in Empire Theory

Demagoguery is not essential to empire theory, but more and more elitist behavior and idiosyncratic behavior is consistent with the notion that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.  Trump reminds one of the Roman emperor Caligula, given that derisive nickname that means "little boots" and considering that that crazy emperor lasted only four years.  A crazy president with "little hands" (Marco Rubio). Although he suggested on the campaign trail "no problem there" Stormy Daniels seems to disagree, as evidenced by a selection from the Jimmy Kimmel interview of Stormy Daniels.  We can only hope he lasts four years or less.  Trump appears narcissistic and so vane he is easily manipulated by tyrants with flattery, as in North Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Russia.  He prefers autocrats (strongmen) over Democratic leaders as he has abdicated leadership of the free world to Angie Merkel.  He also seems to have trouble with powerful women leaders like Angie Merkel of Germany and Teresa May of Great Britain.  When the UN laughed at his claim of being a leading figure of American history, he later claimed they were laughing with him not at him.  When he makes fun of others he often seems to be guilty of those same flaws himself, a perfect mirror of projection.  While he never hesitates to criticize any of his critics, he is never critical of Putin, suggesting Putin does have something over him.  He has sold (or money laundered?) over 600 condos to Russians at an average cost of $250,000 each for a total of $150 million. The Saudis have stepped up business with Trump hotels as many have begun to shun the Trump name brand.  All this in fragrant violation of the constitutional prohibition of accepting emoluments from foreign nations.  Mar a Lago has doubled its fees in the Florida resort country club known as the Southern White House.  He talks to many on an unsecure cellphone, allowing the Russians and Chinese to easily profile him.  This stands in hypocritical contrast to the endless use of emails against Hillary Clinton in the campaign, despite the FBI never finding that security was ever breeched in her email server.

Another Six Pages of Effects of Empire Demagoguery and Militarism:

https://www.academia.edu/11421799/MILITARISM Empire_Social_Decay_WWW_97_6p

Please cite this work as follows:

Reuschlein, Robert. (2018, November 2), "Demagoguery United States", Madison, WI:  Real Economy Institute.  Retrieved from: https://www.expertclick.com/NewsRelease/Demagoguery-United-States,2018163869.aspx

Dr. Peace, Professor Robert Reuschlein, Real Economy Institute

Nominated Vetted 2016, Given Odds 2017, Strongly Considered 2018 Nobel Peace Prize, Possible Favorite in 2019 Nobel Peace Prize Announced October 4th.

Contact: bobreuschlein@gmail.com, Info: www.realeconomy.com