You want facts? Here are some facts that can’t be reputably disputed.
The country’s trade deficit in August was $67 billion, the highest in 14 years. Donald Trump’s trade war with China and trade deals with Mexico and Canada have not worked as he thought. This makes the cost of selling U.S. products abroad higher and makes the cost of imported products for Americans far higher.
More than 211,000 Americans have died from coronavirus, the highest death rate per capita of any country in the world during the worst pandemic in a century in a nation that has the best health care in the world.
Millions more Americans have found their physical or economic lives seriously disrupted because of the virus. Trump put his son-in-law in charge of the pandemic response.
When Trump took office, the unemployment rate was. 4.1%. It is now 7.9%.
As of Aug, 31, 163,735 businesses have closed, a 23% increase in the number of closures since mid-July.
The inner circles of the White House and the Pentagon, including the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are not at peak efficiency. A remarkable number of the nation’s leaders, including the president, are either infected with COVID-19 or are in quarantine.
Trump’s abrupt Twitter announcement, while on a mood-altering steroid, that he would stop negotiations with Congress on a comprehensive COVID-19 relief package for Americans caused the stock market to plummet 600 points. His announcement was in direct opposition to what the Federal Reserve Board said is necessary. Then he waffled, saying he might agree to a piecemeal approach, leaving everyone confused four weeks before the election.
Trump promised that coal industry jobs would return if he were elected in 2016. The number of coal mining and fossil fuel power plant jobs has declined by 17,300 since he took office.
By the end of September, 721 people in this country were killed by police officers this year, including 142 Black people.
According to all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies, Russia is actively trying to sow confusion in our electoral process. FBI director Christopher Wray and the director of the National Security Agency have gone on television warning Americans about foreign efforts to mislead them through social media.
Trump refused to put his family businesses into a blind trust when he became president. Those businesses, on which he paid no taxes for a decade, have made $1.9 billion since he has been president.
Trump paid $750 in federal taxes in 2016, while he was running for the White House. He paid $750 in federal taxes in 2017, his first year as president.
Trump is asking the Supreme Court to throw out the Affordable Care Act, which would leave 20 million Americans without health care during a pandemic. It would also do away with required insurance coverage for preexisting conditions. Trump signed an executive order requiring such coverage, but it has no legal significance.
There are 120 children still being held in detention for crossing the U.S.-Mexican border without documentation. Hundreds more were sent back across the border, their fates unknown.
Trump repeatedly has said he hopes to dismantle everything his predecessor, Barack Obama, had done in office and claims he has accomplished 90% of his goal. He also said he intends to fill 50% of federal judgeships. You are right, that is not yet a fact.
Trump was the third president in U.S. history to be impeached, on a charge of trying to bribe the president of Ukraine by threatening to withhold $400 million in congressionally appropriated aid if Ukraine did not pursue a previously discredited investigation of Joe Biden’s son. The Senate refused to convict Trump of abuse of power by a nearly partisan vote of 52 to 48.
Trump has been documented by several news organizations as telling more than 20,000 lies, distortions, exaggerations and misstatements.
Trump says mail-in voting is full of fraud. Fact is, only .0025% of mailed-in ballots have been shown to be fraudulent.
He said he would not promise to abide by the decision of the American people in electing the next president. That has never happened in the 244-year-old history of the United States.
Trump repeatedly has advised we should not let the facts dominate. Maybe after four years we’re immune to them.
Or not. As Trump often says, we will see.
Ann McFeatters is an op-ed columnist for Tribune News Service. Readers may send her email at amcfeatters@nationalpress.com.