Sen. Tommy Tuberville appeared on Fox Business this week and reflected on the degree to which Donald Trump’s agenda is undermining the economy. The Alabama Republican didn’t contest the premise that the president’s policies were imposing challenges, but he suggested it’d all work out — eventually.
“No pain, no gain,” the coach-turned-politician said. “That’s what we used to tell our football players. There’s gonna be some pain with tariffs.”
That word has been coming up a lot lately. In fact, Trump himself has warned Americans that they should expect to feel some economic “pain“ — at least temporarily — as his agenda takes root. Does that mean a recession is on the way? The president hasn’t ruled out the possibility, though a member of his Cabinet used a line this week that the White House has avoided. NBC News reported:
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Trump’s economic policies are the right way to go even if they lead to a recession in the United States. “It’s worth it,” he said when he was asked about the possibility of a recession.
In other words, as Americans deal with economic tumult — what White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt described this week as “a period of economic transition“ — the public is supposed to take comfort in the idea that the administration’s regressive policies will eventually produce encouraging results.
The list of problems with this is not short. For one thing, neither the president nor anyone on his team are prepared to offer any kind of timeline for the White House-imposed “pain.” For another, they’ve been equally reluctant to go into any kind of detail about the scope and scale of the turmoil.
It doesn’t help matters that when Trump and his cohorts describe the economic record of his first term, they consistently rely on wild exaggerations and deceptive claims.
But perhaps most important of all is the degree to which the White House has moved the goalposts: Before the election, Trump was only too pleased to tell the electorate that he’d deliver results on “day one.” A vote for the Republican was a vote for immediate prosperity.
There were no caveats. No references to “eventual” prosperity. Nothing about periods of “economic transition.” The idea that there might be a recession — that would be “worth it” — wasn’t part of the pitch.
If anyone in the White House is wondering why a majority of the public disapproves of Trump’s handling of the economy for the first time, they probably ought to start here.