FACT CHECK: Donald Trump Broke His Promises and Left America’s Working Class Behind
May 1, 2024
In response to Donald Trump pretending to care about workers and the middle class after leaving them behind, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement:
“The best thing Donald Trump ever did for America’s working class was leave the Oval Office after his horrendous four years that saw record job losses and billionaires paying less in taxes than working Americans for the first time in history. Nothing Trump says will change the fact that he repeatedly broke his promises to workers and is running on a failed MAGAnomics agenda designed to once again rig the economy for his billionaire buddies and leave America’s middle class behind. Now Trump wants to double down on his toxic giveaways to the super rich because while he may be the best candidate for his special interest billionaire backers, he’s not the candidate for hardworking Americans.”
Donald Trump’s claims about workers don’t stack up with his record of rigging the economy for the ultra-wealthy while leaving the middle class behind.
Shot: Trump: “We’ve become the party of the worker, we’ve become the party of the middle income.”
Chaser: Forbes: “Trump Tax Cuts Helped Billionaires Pay Less Taxes Than The Working Class In 2018”
CBS News: “Two years after Trump tax cuts, middle-class Americans are falling behind”
The Guardian: “They were billed as a ‘middle-class miracle’ but according to a new book Donald Trump’s $1.5tn tax cuts have helped billionaires pay a lower rate than the working class for the first time in history.”
Washington Post Analysis: “One of President Donald Trump’s lesser-known but profoundly damaging legacies will be the explosive rise in the national debt that occurred on his watch. The financial burden that he’s inflicted on our government will wreak havoc for decades, saddling our kids and grandkids with debt. The national debt has risen by almost $7.8 trillion during Trump’s time in office.”
Washington Post Analysis: “The growth in the annual deficit under Trump ranks as the third-biggest increase, relative to the size of the economy, of any U.S. presidential administration, according to a calculation by Eugene Steuerle, co-founder of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.”
Politico: “The nation’s fiscal outlook looks ever bleaker, thanks in part to deficit spending during President Donald Trump’s first term, Congress’ nonpartisan budget scorekeeper projected Tuesday.”
REMINDER: Trump repeatedly broke his promises to workers across the country.
CNN: “Trump told GM workers he could save their plant, but it’s gone for good”
Washington Post: “Trump promised this Wisconsin town a manufacturing boom. It never arrived.”
Fox Business: “Electric truck company touted by Trump as ‘an incredible concept’ files for bankruptcy”
Detroit Free Press: “Trump, tweets couldn’t save U.S. auto jobs in 2017”
“In March 2017, [Trump] praised General Motors when he flew to Detroit to highlight the importance of American manufacturing. That same day, GM announced plans for 900 new or retained jobs in Michigan within 12 months. This week, GM confirmed a net loss of 3,500 hourly manufacturing jobs in 2017.”
MLive: “On the 2016 campaign trail in Warren, Trump pledged ‘you won’t lose one plant’ if he were elected. GM announced last year it would end production at five North American plants.”
New York Times: “After Years of Growth, Automakers Are Cutting U.S. Jobs”
Wall Street Journal: “President Trump’s trade war against China didn’t achieve the central objective of reversing a U.S. decline in manufacturing, economic data show, despite tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese goods to discourage imports.”
Trump owns the worst jobs record in modern American history.
Fortune: “Trump to leave office with the worst jobs record since Herbert Hoover”
Washington Post: “President Trump took office at the crest of the longest economic expansion in U.S. history. He leaves presiding over the worst labor market in modern U.S. history, as an already-sputtering economic recovery has turned negative.”
Bloomberg: “Trump’s Jobs Record Fell Short of Promises Even Before the Virus”
Even though Trump promised to stop offshoring, his tax giveaways for the ultra-wealthy and big corporations created new incentives for companies to ship jobs overseas.
Bloomberg: “The Offshoring of U.S. Jobs Increased on Trump’s Watch”
Washington Post: “Trump promised ‘America First’ would keep jobs here. But the tax plan might push them overseas.”
Reuters: “Donald Trump won the U.S. presidency four years ago, in part, by a promise to Midwest factory workers that he would stop companies like Schneider Electric SE from moving jobs out of the country. He didn’t stop them.”
Trump rooted for the economy to crash to help his political standing.
Trump: “And when there’s a crash — I hope it’s going to be during this next 12 months because I don’t want to be Herbert Hoover. The one president I just don’t want to be, Herbert Hoover.”
Daily Beast: “Donald Trump admitted Monday that he wants a severe economic downturn to happen during the next year, because it will help his odds of winning the presidential election.”