Let’s listen to what Trump is saying about how he’d govern

Donald Trump is a one-trick pony who gives the same performance at all of his campaign rallies. He talks about the “rigged” 2020 election, blasts “radical left Democrats,” RINOS, the mainstream media, prosecutors who have indicted him and the judges who are presiding over his civil and criminal trials. Apparently, even his supporters don’t listen to him very closely anymore.

Except for promises to end the “invasion” at the border and deport millions of undocumented immigrants, Trump rarely mentions policy priorities for a second term as president. When he does, he provides virtually no details and hides behind misleading, “have-it-both ways” inartful dodges.

Trump seems more interested in returning to the White House, staying out of jail and punishing his enemies than improving the lives of his fellow Americans.

On the economy: Trump doesn’t mention that as president he declared he would eliminate the national debt in eight years but added $7.8 trillion to it. Or that he failed to follow through on a ballyhooed $1 trillion infrastructure initiative “to fix our inner cities and rebuild our highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools, and hospitals.” Or that his administration presided over a net loss of three million jobs, the worst four-year performance in more than 60 years.

Trump has predicted a severe recession, hoped that the crash “is going to be in the next 12 months” (on President Biden’s watch) and declared stock prices have increased dramatically because investors “think I’m going to be elected.” He said he would not reappoint Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell because he is probably going to lower interest rates to boost economic growth “and help the Democrats.”

Trump intends to impose 10 percent across-the-board tariff hikes and deport millions of illegal immigrants, despite warnings that doing so will reduce wages, increase unemployment and reignite inflation. An economist at the conservative American Enterprise Institute called these policies “completely insane.”

Although a record number of people now get health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, which almost 60 percent of Americans view favorably, Trump claims Obamacare is “a catastrophe,” promises yet again to repeal and replace it, and maintains he’s “seriously looking at alternatives.” According to a Republican with knowledge of Trump’s campaign, “There’s not a real ‘there’ there. No one’s working on this.”

On abortion: Allergic to giving credit to others, Trump asserts “Pro-lifers had absolutely zero status until I came along” and engineered the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, “the biggest WIN for LIFE in a generation.” But since pro-choice candidates and referendums won big in 2022 and 2023, Trump has changed his tune. Florida’s six-week abortion ban, he claims, “is a terrible thing and a terrible mistake.” Asked about the number of weeks he thought appropriate, Trump replied, “We’re looking at a lot of different things.” And, “frankly, I don’t care” whether the legislation comes from the states or the federal government. Trump now promises to “sit down with both sides and I’d negotiate something, and we’ll end up with peace on that issue” for the first time in a half century — “I think both sides are going to like me.”

On Russia’s attack on Ukraine: Trump has declared he could end the war in “one day, 24 hours.” The “deal would be easy,” given his “very good relationship” with Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin. He’ll tell Zelensky, “no more, you gotta make a deal.” He’ll tell Putin, “If you don’t make a deal, we’re gonna give them a lot.” Trump refuses to divulge additional details “because then I can’t use that negotiation.” One critic quipped, “So nuanced and savvy. Why hasn’t anyone thought of this?”

On the war between Israel and Hamas: Had he been president, Trump asserts, “you would never have had the attack on Israel.” After initially criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and deeming Hamas terrorists “very smart,” Trump punted on what he would do now: “So you have a war that’s going on and you’re probably going to have to let this play out … because a lot of people are dying.”

On border security: Although Republicans got what they demanded — substantial concessions from Senate Democrats and the Biden administration on the most impactful immigration reform legislation in decades as part of a package with aid to Ukraine and Israel — Trump intervened to abort the agreement. Even as he continued to claim, falsely, that other countries were sending insane asylum inmates to the United States, Trump told Republicans not to “do a Border deal at all, unless we get EVERYTHING.”

More than a few GOP senators were upset. “I hope no one is trying to take this away for campaign purposes,” said Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.). “If it weren’t for Donald Trump,” another senator lamented (anonymously), the proposal would have had “almost unanimous support” from his Republican colleagues. Nonetheless, before the text of the agreement was released, Speaker Mike Johnson announced it would be “dead on arrival” in the House. When negotiators unveiled the 370-page draft last Sunday, Trump posted that he had “no doubt” Johnson “will only make a deal that is PERFECT ON THE BORDER.”

The bipartisan compromise — praised by the U.S. Border Patrol Union (which endorsed Trump in 2020) and, according to the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board, containing “long-time GOP priorities” Trump “never came close to getting” ­— did not even get to the floor for a vote in either the Senate or the House.

If you listen closely, you might hear the sounds of a self-serving aspiring autocrat and his Republican enablers chipping away at the foundation of American democracy.

Glenn C. Altschuler is the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Emeritus Professor of American Studies at Cornell University.