Donald Trump's Empty Promises Are Catching Up to Him

[Wiz Imp]

16. More Truth about 1870-1913...

https://www.morningstar.com/news/marketwatch/20250208177/trump-says-america-was-at-its-richest-in-the-late-1800s-here-are-the-facts

Troy Senik, the author of a biography of Grover Cleveland, who was U.S. president in the 1880s and 1890s, echoed Meissner's view. It's "just flatly incorrect" to say we were at our richest from 1870 to 1913, Senik said in an email. He pointed to the chart shown above, which indicates that U.S. GDP per capita - when adjusted for inflation - is around six times higher today than it was back then.

https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/trump-loves-gilded-age-tariffs-great-time-rich-119626998

Robert W. Merry, author of “President McKinley: Architect of the American Century,” said McKinley was the leading voice on tariffs at a time when they dominated policy discussions because they were the federal government's chief source of revenue, given that no income tax existed.

But Trump differs with McKinley in using tariffs as a “bludgeon to get other countries to do our bidding on efforts that have nothing to do with revenue, or economic matters or trade." The president has done that with Canada and Mexico, using tariff threats to try to force those countries to take harder lines against drug smuggling and illegal immigration. "Nobody would have even considered such a thing in McKinley’s day,” Merry said.

As chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, McKinley championed the Tariff Act of 1890, which set the then-highest import tax in U.S. history, raising taxes to 49.5% on 1,500-plus items — everything from glass to tin plates to cayenne pepper. The results were quickly poor for the economy and for Republicans. “It led to an increase in prices, a kind of inflation, even before the bill took effect,” Merry said. “The argument was, it was carte blanche for retailers and industrialists who basically jacked up their prices unnecessarily.”

Americans dealt Republicans landslide congressional defeats during the 1890 midterms, voting scores of incumbents out of office — including McKinley. The tariff fallout also helped Grover Cleveland win the White House for Democrats in 1892, after he lost his reelection the previous cycle.