Trump’s on a Path to a One-Term Presidency
To get re-elected, he will need to truly end the trade war.
President Donald Trump is walking on familiar, treacherous ground.
Photographer: NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images
President Donald J. Trump will never be mistaken for President George H. W. Bush. One spoke of “a thousand points of light,” the other of “American carnage.” One was a war hero, the other had bone spurs. One was a Connecticut patrician, the other has gold-plated bathroom fixtures.
But Trump may yet have one big thing in common with Bush the Elder: He too may end up being a one-term president thanks to the economy, writes Karl Smith. Bush’s broken 1988 campaign promise — “Read my lips: no new taxes” — planted the seeds of his 1992 defeat. Trump has cut taxes, but mainly for the wealthy and corporations, and Karl notes that the effects of his trade war amount to an offsetting tax hike on consumers. A recession obliterated high approval ratings for Bush. Trump now faces the prospect of his own recession, but with approval ratings that have never threatened to crack the high 40s.