‘Manifesto of mistruths’ on eve of acquittal

I n his State of the Union Address on Tuesday, President Trump laid out the strongest case for his re-election — the economy.

During his leadership, the longest economic recovery in the nation’s history has continued, now in its 11th year. At 3.5%, unemployment is at historic lows and wages are growing. The stock markets have experienced spectacular growth.

Yet in the same speech, Trump provided the fundamental reason why he should not be re-elected. He lies and cannot be trusted.

While politicians have long exaggerated and bended facts to bolster their claims, Trump is willing to totally disregard reality.

The president’s address to Congress came the day before the conclusion, Wednesday, of his impeachment trial. With only one Republican willing to show the courage to recognize the seriousness of Trump’s abuse of power — and vote to remove him from office — Trump was easily acquitted.

There is no indication that Trump learned anything. He admits no wrong and would likely again welcome the involvement of other nations to interfere in U.S. elections for his benefit.

But that one ethical Republican senator, Mitt Romney of Utah, recognized the seriousness of the president’s acts in trying to force another country, Ukraine, to investigate a political rival or face the loss of vital military aid from the United States.

“Corrupting an election to keep oneself in office is perhaps the most abusive and destructive violation of one’s oath of office that I can imagine,” Romney rightfully observed.

In line with our editorial recommendation, Romney voted to convict the president for abuse of power and acquit him on the article of Obstruction of Congress.

And so the president remains in office, the verdict on a second term resting with the voters.

Trump was in full fantasy force in his State of the Union Address, imagining some alternative reality in which he took leadership of a nation in the throes of economic collapse and rebuilt it.

“If we hadn’t reversed the failed economic policies of the previous administration, the world would not now be witnessing this great economic success,” boasted the president.

The reality is that it was Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, who when elected in 2008 inherited a nation teetering on the precipice of a depression and who oversaw a recovery that has continued through the Trump era.

According to Bureau of Labor Statistics, the economy added 227,000 jobs during the last three years of Obama’s time in office, another 191,000 during Trump’s first three years. When measured against inflation, wages grew at a 1.1% annual rate over those three years during Obama’s term, at 0.6% in the Trump years. Overall, during the three closing Obama years GDP increased 2.4%, and during Trump’s time in office, 2.5%.

But it is not enough for this president to make the case he has managed the economy well. No, he must diminish his predecessor. He must be the best.

In this vein, Trump claimed under his administration’s “bold regulatory reduction campaign … the United States has become the No. 1 producer of oil and natural gas anywhere in the world.”

According to the Energy Information Administration, the U.S. became top oil producer in 2013 and passed Russia as the leading gas producer around 2009 or 2010 — the Obama years.

“Our economy is the best it has ever been,” said Trump.

This is not true. The nation has had several greater economic expansions.

Trump would have Americans believe factories are popping up across their nation, claiming in the address that “America has now gained 12,000 new factories under my administration.”

The Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages shows 11,000 new manufacturing companies have been added since Trump took office, which is great. But most — around 8,200 — are shops employing five people or fewer, not factories.

Most stunningly, and so easily refuted, was Trump’s pledge to “always protect patients with pre-existing conditions.”

Trump supported a bill, which barely failed, that would have repealed the Affordable Care Act and ended the mandate to protect such patients. Administration lawyers are in court, right now, seeking to declare the ACA unconstitutional.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi received much attention for dramatically tearing up the president’s speech as Trump concluded it. The Democratic leader seems to recognize the asymmetrical politics her party will have to play to beat Trump at his own theatrical games. The action engendered much attention, as did her explanation for doing so. The speech was, she said, “a manifesto of mistruths.”

We miss the decorum. We’d like to see it return, post Trump. But you know what? Pelosi was right.