Until recently, US was the fastest growing economy among the developed nations of the world. But Trump started preaching that US economic success was a mirage. The inflation is too high, people can’t buy groceries, the other nations of the world are taking advantage of America, US is subsidizing Europe & other nations by running large trade deficits etc. These things are lies but American public bought them anyway because Trump is a great salesman, a reality TV expert who captures imagination of people.
US economy does have problems but not the kind Trump talks about. The problem of massive inequality, conspicuous waste, inefficiencies (like America spends most on healthcare but lags far behind in standards of healthcare among developed nations), economic stagnation, high level of personal indebtedness (example student loans), public housing scarcity etc. But some of these things were already being remedied by Biden administration with things like industrial policy, social welfare and healthcare reforms (see things in ARP, IRA, CHIPS & Science act, student debt relief proposals etc), overhauling tax system for progressive taxation etc (ideas like minimum tax rate, closing loopholes, better enforcement etc). Donald Trump never talks about these real problems. Rather he creates fictitious ones and also present fictitious solutions which greatly aggravates the real underlying issues.
Trump made tall promises like reducing prices, creating jobs and bringing industrial manufacturing back to America (Biden was already doing it smartly). Trump in election pitch promised magical solutions to be delivered right after victory. But now Trump has changed the pitch drastically. A recession is already in the forecast and Trump says that short term pain is necessary to achieve long term success. With mindless and impulsive policies of trade war, austerity and mass deregulation, Trump has destabilized the economy and thrown big uncertainty in economic environment (nationally as well as globally). All this translates into economic shock that will affect America and Trump is also realizing it to some extent. But since Trump can never admit his fault (due to his mental pathology), he only doubles down on failed path.
So America is now like a failed 3rd world state Kakistocracy. The incompetent and corrupted politicians of such states bungles governance and policies. And they continue to preach about sacrifices and economic pain to their citizens in promise of some future national panacea. Only that the panacea never arrives while economic pain continue to increase and nation continues to decline.
Musical coda
9th Company Credits soundtracks