Believing Donald Trump will be better for the economy than Vice President Kamala Harris is like thinking you’re a dinner guest when you’re actually the main course.
Opinion Columnist
LZ Granderson
LZ Granderson writes about culture, politics, sports and navigating life in America.
There’s a reason three billionaires — including Elon Musk — poured $220 million into Trump’s reelection bid this summer, and it’s not because they felt the pinch when the price of a gallon of milk went up a few years ago. It’s because the former president has a proven record of helping the ultra-rich get richer at the expense of average Americans.
Trump’s 2017 tax cuts were crafted to mostly benefit the wealthiest 20%. Those at the very top really cashed in. America’s 748 billionaires reaped $2.2 trillion after the cuts went into effect.
When Trump slashed the corporate tax rate, his Council of Economic Advisers promised American workers would see at least $4,000 added to their bottom line — the old “trickle-down economics” sales pitch again.
It didn’t work under Ronald Reagan, and it obviously didn’t happen under Trump.
In 2018 alone, one analysis of S&P 500 companies found more than 80% of the money corporations received in tax breaks was paid out to owners of the companies, and only 20% was reinvested into the business. Surprise — the tax savings didn’t trickle down to workers or encourage economic growth.
And in the first year of the pandemic, when tens of millions of Americans were losing their jobs? That’s when hundreds of American billionaires got $1.2 trillion richer.
Taxes are a big part of this story.
Reportedly Musk, ranked as the world’s richest person, paid roughly 3% in taxes from 2014-18. The average American pays more like 15%.
If you think Trump would be good for the economy, you just might be a billionaire.
Not that Trump’s billionaire fans are fixated only on American taxes. The ultra-rich around the world are thriving since Trump’s wealth transfer began, with the richest 1% grabbing two-thirds of the new wealth that was created between 2020 and 2023. They’ve helped Trump beyond just campaign donations.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Musk has been regularly chatting with Russian President Vladimir Putin since 2022, just as Trump is reported to have had many private phone calls with the dictator since leaving the White House. Operatives for Putin — whose hidden assets have been estimated to rival Musk’s fortune — used fake social media accounts to help elect Trump in 2016. (The Justice Department said last month that Russia is at it again, by the way.)
We don’t get many glimpses into the secret dealings of billionaires, but there was a data leak in 2016 that reflected poorly on them. The Panama Papers exposed a network of shell companies used by the world’s ultra-rich to avoid paying taxes in their countries. Although the U.S. sentenced one taxpayer to prison in 2020 for related fraud, money laundering and other crimes, 28 people charged in Panama were acquitted just this summer.
The fallout from this and other data leaks may not be over yet. The Panama Papers implicated some world leaders, including the prime minister of Iceland, who resigned. Putin and some of Russia’s oligarchs are mentioned. The Paradise Papers, a similar data leak made public in 2017, implicated Trump Cabinet members, advisors and major donors. Perhaps the former president’s pending trials and his 34 felony convictions tend to eclipse those financial troubles in Americans’ minds.
I’m not sure why poor Americans would believe Trump’s economic policies would help them in any way.
Maybe some Americans think of rising incomes and credit Trump for those. But the increase in wages that workers currently enjoy largely came about because of work stoppages led by unions and a supportive Biden White House. Trump and Musk do not want union workers. They talk openly about their disdain for paying overtime. In fact, Project 2025 — the blueprint for how a second Trump administration would reshape the government around him — would make it easier for corporations to avoid paying workers extra for longer days.
Maybe some Americans recall direct assistance from the federal government early in the pandemic and imagine Trump was behind those checks. He wasn’t. The three rounds of stimulus relief — including the infamous check that has Trump’s name on it — came about because Democrats in Congress pushed to help struggling Americans, not because of Republican compassion. When the American Rescue Plan passed the Senate 50-49 in March 2021, every single Republican voted against it.
The U.S. economy endured the pandemic despite Trump’s mishandling, not because he steered the ship well. American workers are finally seeing some gains, and inflation has slowed back to normal levels. That’s only because Biden and Harris have been able to undo some of the damage the previous administration did.
Trump campaigns as if he’s an Everyman, but when he was in office he showed who he really looks out for — and it is not the American worker.