The Liar an Thief

The White House said he was going to Georgia to talk about the economy. Jobs. Wages. Inflation. The fact that working Americans are still staring at grocery receipts like they’re crime scene evidence. That was the assignment. And within minutes of grabbing a microphone, Donald Trump did what he does better than any living politician: he detonated reality and replaced it with a lie.

Before the food on the table got cold, he was back to moaning about 2020. “Crooked ballots.” “Cheated like dogs.” The same delusional bedtime story he’s been whispering to himself for five years. This wasn’t an economic speech. It was a tantrum with a travel budget. Georgia didn’t get policy. It got paranoia.

Then he pivoted to tariffs, his favorite blunt instrument, and declared them “the greatest thing that has happened to this country.” The greatest thing. Not the GI Bill. Not Social Security. Not the interstate highway system. Tariffs. Taxes on imported goods that American businesses pay and American consumers absorb. Research shows midsize businesses have seen those tariff costs triple. These are companies employing tens of millions of people. They don’t absorb those costs out of patriotic devotion to a man in a red tie. They raise prices. They cut staff. They squeeze wages. But sure, Don, tell the guy paying $7 for eggs that you “solved” inflation.

That’s the scam. Say it’s fixed. Declare victory. Blame Democrats. Move on before anyone checks the math.

He screamed at the Supreme Court for daring to question his emergency-power tariff fantasy, insisting he has the “right” to do it because he says he does. That’s not leadership. That’s a toddler in a suit. And while he’s busy relitigating 2020 for the thousandth time, despite audits, court rulings, and even his own former attorney general rejecting his fraud fiction, actual Americans are still hurting.

Here’s the part that should make every thinking adult furious: the people cheering him on in Georgia are the ones who will pay for this nonsense. Tariffs are taxes. You pay them. I pay them. Businesses pass them on because that’s how arithmetic works. But Trump counts on something else working even better: denial. He knows if he keeps the outrage machine running, FBI raids, ballot conspiracies, executive order teases, his base will focus on the smoke instead of the fire.

He is a liar. He is a thief, of truth, of stability, of the public’s ability to have a serious conversation about real economic policy. And the bill for his lies always arrives later, after the rally lights dim. It shows up in higher prices, weaker alliances, retaliatory trade measures, shrinking margins, and a country too exhausted to separate fact from fantasy.

Georgia deserved a sober discussion about wages, healthcare costs, tariffs, and inflation. Instead it got grievance theater and economic cosplay from a man who confuses volume with virtue. He doesn’t govern; he performs. And the American people, including the ones chanting his name are going to pay for the encore.

— Michael Jochum

Not Just a Drummer: Reflections on Art, Politics, Dogs, and the Human Condition