One of the great hoodwinks of the century has been Donald Trump convincing too many economically struggling white voters that he and his party are better for their economic interests than Democrats. A big part of that pitch was his “message” on jobs. It doesn’t exactly qualify as a message to simply say, as he did when announcing his campaign, “I will be the greatest jobs president that God ever created.” Still, his message—which emphasized opposition to trade deals like the TPP—worked well enough to eke out an Electoral College victory.
To be sure, race-baiting was a big part of his campaign strategy as well, but the economic piece of it was important. UCLA political scientist Lynn Vavreck looked at TV ads run during the general election campaign (June through Election Day), and found that almost four times as many of Trump’s ads (34 percent) highlighted economic issues than did Clinton’s (9 percent)—and that Trump’s percentage was higher than the average presidential campaign (28 percent) going back to 1952.
Since taking up residence in the White Hosue, Trump has failed to pass a job-creating infrastructure plan, and has overseen job creation numbers that are no better than Barack Obama’s final year in office. His rich man’s tax cut has mostly just cut taxes for the rich—and we’ve borrowed billions more than initially projected in order to send that money trickling up the economic ladder. Furthermore, it’s done little to nothing for workers, just as planned, according to financial analyst Michael Patcher, quoted in Time:
The tax law didn’t do anything to provide an incentive to employers to create jobs. There’s nothing in there that would suggest that employers have a particular incentive to hire more people or pay the ones that they have more money.
In recent weeks, Democrats have stepped up with some bold ideas about creating jobs. And it’s about time.