[White] nationalist

If this image of an American president declaring himself a nationalist doesn’t send chills up your spine, maybe there is something wrong with your nervous system. Here are my reactions:

1. He left out one word. Standing in front of this all-white audience, he didn’t have to say “white” nationalist. He knows and they know what he meant. His supporters will deny it, but this is a president who seeks to turn out racists, his strongest constituency, and to suppress votes by minorities. We’ll have to wait until November 6 to see how successful he is, or whether his blatant racism and misogyny will ensure that minorities and women come to the polls in record numbers. Indications so far are that they will. 
2. Wharton School should be ashamed. Any student who has taken Econ 101 knows that no country can prosper if it closes itself off to trade. Yes, globalists like me want the world the prosper, because then Americans do too. The President’s tariffs and other protectionist moves generate retaliation and are against American interests. They will sooner or later end the long Obama expansion. That’s what the stock market is signaling these days with its fall back towards the level when Trump took office. Remember those tweets about the soaring Dow Jones? Gone with the wind.
3. The President’s focus on “the caravan” of mostly Hondurans heading to the US through Mexico is the perfect vehicle to focus both racism and protectionism while distracting attention from the Administration’s own failure to strengthen border protection. The effort to scare people away by mistreating them is not working.  Apprehensions of illegal immigrants in the US are up, after a dip early in this Administration: 

But it is also important to note that there is no reason to believe the participants in the caravan intend to immigrate illegally. Most won’t even make it to the US border, if past experience is a valid indicator. Of those who do, many will declare themselves asylum-seekers, who are not illegal immigrants. The standards for proving a “well-founded fear of persecution” are exacting. Few will get asylum and most will instead be deported.

The President has already admitted he has no evidence for his claim that “unknown Middle Easterners” are in the caravan. He just thinks it might be possible because that has happened before (in miniscule numbers). His promise to cut off aid to Honduras and others countries from which people migrate is simply counter-productive: the aid is spent on economic development efforts that make migration less likely.

President Trump has gone out of his way to claim the “white nationalist” label. Americans need to keep that in mind as the November 6 election approaches, along with the sputtering stock market, the slowing pace of job growth compared to the Obama years, the tax cut for the super rich, the damage tariffs are doing to US exports, and the exaggerated fear of immigrants. Not to mention the Republican effort to end health insurance for people with pre-existing conditions. It is time to vote not only conscience, but self interest.