107 Shades of Crazy

My Letter from Donald Trump

Mixed Nuts

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For every word in the English language, there are roughly two synonyms. But the word crazy has 107, ranging from the classic Latin, non compos mentis, to the Māori, porangi.

Why so many?

Simple. We’re all crazy. But not all of us are full-time barking mad. Most of us go temporarily insane. Hence, we all need a stay-out-of-the-looney-bin card — the ability to claim we’re not irretrievably nuts, only a tad dippy, touched, doolally, or sectionable.

To give ourselves this rope, we’ve turned crazy into a spectrum, not a black and white diagnosis meriting lobotomy. To further humanize and categorize crazy, we’ve created a vast industry of shrinks, psychologists, therapists, counselors, clergy, healers, herbologists, acupuncturists, meditators, and mentors.

Exactly What Shade of Crazy Is Former President (FP) Trump?

I’ve been contemplating this question since opening my letter from the FP. I have to admit, I was flattered that the FP would reach out to me personally. His letter began “Dear Laurence.” Big relief. Lots of people write Lawrence. That sends me bats in the belfry.

The letter is dated July 21th — the day President Biden dropped out of the race. But it was postmarked August 21st. Why write a letter and then wait a full month to mail it? Frankly, that seems not the full shilling.

In any case, what an honor. And there, at the bottom of page 2, before the lengthy PS, was the former president’s classic signature — if you can call it that. Clearly, he has suffered penmanship trauma his entire life. We bonded momentarily over this.

But then I wondered, why is the former President writing me? This seemed off one’s nut. After all, I was the first person to call him a traitor in the national media. Well, I tried. The Forbes editors, over my objection, placed the word economic in front of traitor.

There’s also this. I ran against him in 2016 as a registered write-in candidate. Surely he knows this? I was one of only five people who could legally have beat him. But here he was writing his arch political enemy — asking me to contribute to his cause! Well this made me berserk, but my wife told me I was coconuts, so I calmed down.

I’m also an independent. And my published judgements of the FP have only worsened over time. Hence, writing to me seems truly up the pole. Yet, he was doing so on beautiful, thick, silk-coated, soft-touch, satin finish paper. Yes, sending a two-sider rather than a two-pager seemed chintzy. But, still, he was writing ME! Maybe, I thought, he’ll offer me a cabinet position. I’d get to hang with RFK Jr.!

Then my eyes fell upon the letter’s header. There, in bold large print (positioned slightly too high on the page for my taste), stood the words:

President Donald J. Trump

Gosh, I thought. FP is signaling that he’s P. This struck me as delusional. Doesn’t the FP realize he’s living in a hotel in Florida, not the White House. Yes, there’s a public bathroom serving as a repository for state secrets, but it’s not the Executive Mansion as TR used to put it.

I moved on to the letter’s first six sentences. Here they are, in bold.

“Our Trump Administration Built the Greatest Economy in American History”

Bravo to you, FP!!

Then again, trust, but verify.

Let’s look at the Fed’s chart of real GDP since 1950. Leaving out COVID, can you, my reader, see a change in the trend between 2016 and 2020 compared with 2020 onward?

You can’t, because there’s none to see.

In Trump’s first three years, before COVID hit, the real economy grew by 10.4 percent. In Biden’s first three years, the real economy grew by 10.9 percent. In Bill Clinton’s last three years, the economy grew at 13.1 percent. There are another seven three-year postwar periods in which the economy grew faster than under the FP. Simply put, sentence 1 is daft.

“We were energy independent and on the cusp of energy dominance.”

Check out the chart below. In 2020, Trump’s last year in office, energy exports exceeded energy imports by 3 quadtrillion BTUs. Last year, net exports were 8 guadtrillion BTUs. Hence, we are far more energy independent under Biden than we were under Trump. Thus, sentence 2 is potty.

“We negotiated the best trade deal ever made.”

What does “best” mean? Does imposing tariffs on China, which are still in place, constitute a “trade deal”? Is the FP’s pledge to impose a 10 percent tariff on all imports if he becomes P his promise of a global “trade deal?” Plus, the FP is forgetting the Hanseatic League that coordinated trade in central and northern Europe starting in the 13th century? How about the 1854 Convention of Kanagawa that opened up trade with Japan? And the 1860 Cobden-Chevalier Treaty that lowered tariffs between Britain and France? Or the 1993 Mastrict Treaty that founded the European Union? Sentence 3 is, to be honest, nutty as fruit cake.

“We delivered huge tax cuts.”

Not quite. Read this article by myself and other economists. The average living standard increase generated by the 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act tax cuts was just 1.5 percent. Hence, the tax cuts were middling, not huge. Sentence 4 is out of one’s tree.

“We provided massive regulatory relief for the benefit of entrepreneurs.”

I’m not sure what regulatory relief the FP is imagining. I have a small software company, which I started in 1993, and manage on the side. (My main gig is serving as a Professor of Economics at Boston University.) I didn’t noticed any regulatory relief whatsoever under the FP. Thus, sentence 5 sounds flaky since it lists not a single specific provision that helped small businesses like mine.

“We rebuilt the U.S. military and the most secure border in American history.”

Every president spends on the military and the military is always changing what it’s doing, i.e., rebuilding. So, this makes the first half of the sentence vacuous. Yes, the FP increased the ratio of defense spending to GDP in his first three years in office — but by only 5 percent. That’s nothing to write home about. I’d call his assertion — “We rebuilt the U.S. military.” — off-the-wall.

“Most secure border” suggests the FP blocked more people with criminal records from entering the country. Yet, under Biden, over three times more such immigrants are being stopped than in 2019. Moreover, the number of immigrants grew by 2.8 percent between 2019 and 2022. But the population grew equally rapidly. That’s why the immigrant share of the population has stayed flat since 2019. Given this and given the three-fold higher rate of criminals captured at the border, it appears that Biden’s administration has secured our border to a far higher degree than did Trump.

In short, sentence 6’s border assertion is clearly mental.

Wait, It Gets Worse

That’s a lot of crazy packed into just six sentences. But the letter gets worse.

“Sadly our Trump Economic Boom has given way to the Biden Economic Bust.”

This is fatuous. Doesn’t the FP fact check? The National Bureau of Economic Research identifies expansions and recessions. It hasn’t declared a Biden recession. The top chart shows why. Output has been rising, not falling.

“We are a failing nation. America is a mess. Our economy is failing. Inflation is out of control. Our Southern border is in a state of absolute chaos.”

This is bonkers. The economy is growing faster than under the FP. Inflation is now running at just 2.6 percent. As for the Southern border, enforcement is way up.

If you took the ten worst presidents in the history of the United States and added them up, they would not have done near the destruction to our country that Joe Biden has done.

This grammatically challenged statement is looney toons. How does one add up presidents or destruction? Also, Earth-to-FP. You’re running against VP, not P. Yes, your letter is dated July 21st. But you sent it August 21st!

Ours is a record of spectacular success. Biden’s record is one of shocking failure.

This is truly lunatic. Producing hundreds of thousands of excess COVID deaths is not spectacular success. Growing the economy at its ongoing paltry rate is not spectacular success. Unleashing a mob on the capital to lynch your VP and overturn the Constitution is not spectacular success. Getting impeached twice is not spectacular success.

Can former President Trump really be this demented?

Perhaps he’s trying to throw the election with the hope that PH, along with GA Governor Kemp, will pardon him — to heal the country? Maybe JFK Jr. is already brokering the deal?

Now I’m being delusional.

No, the best interpretation is that the FP is truly out of his mind.

PS, The FP’s valediction was not, Love, Don. He sent 27 “love letters” to Kim Jung-un and I get “Sincerely”? That’s porangi!