Bring
down inflation:
There are four things the President & Congress can do and
one which the Federal Reserve can do, which can be done to bring
down inflation.
1) Decrease government spending and raise
taxes. This will decrease the total demand goods and
services and put downward pressure on prices.
2) Decrease or eliminate tariffs on everything. This
will lower the price of imported goods, and the costs of
production for products made in the USA using imported parts
or materials.
3) In the long-run do things which spur long-term
growth. (See below.)
However, that will not affect inflation now.
4) Allow more immigrants in. This keeps the cost of
produce lower since most farm workers are immigrants and many
of them are illegal. Lowering food prices will do a lot
for lowering inflation.
5) The Federal Reserve can increase interest rates. This
will decrease the total demand goods and services and put
downward pressure on prices.
What President Trump has done:
1) He virtually did not change spending and he cut
taxes. This is the exact opposite of what he should
have done if he wanted to lower inflation. https://bipartisanpolicy.org/explainer/what-does-the-one-big-beautiful-bill-cost/
https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/30/politics/doge-musk-government-savings
https://www.npr.org/2025/10/01/nx-s1-5558298/doge-fiscal-year-savings-budget-rehired-government-shutdown
2) He raised tariffs on virtually everything. This
is the exact opposite of what he should have done if he
wanted to lower inflation. https://taxfoundation.org/research/all/federal/trump-tariffs-trade-war/
https://www.tradecomplianceresourcehub.com/2025/09/17/trump-2-0-tariff-tracker/
3) As you will see below, he did the
exact opposite of what he should have done if he wanted to
lower inflation.
4) He is kicking out illegal immigrants and making it harder
for legal immigrants to stay. This is the exact
opposite of what he should have done if he wanted to lower
inflation. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/protecting-the-american-people-against-invasion/
https://www.marketplace.org/story/2025/06/30/how-trumps-deportation-agenda-affects-farm-harvests
5) He pressured the Fed to lower interest rates. This
is the exact opposite of what he should have done if he
wanted to lower inflation. https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/fed-expected-cut-rates-first-time-2025-amid-trump-pressure
Spur long-term growth in the
economy:
1) Give more money to poor rural and inner-city
school districts. This will improve their education and
make the graduates more productive.
2) Give more money to colleges and universities for
research. This type of research gives the types of
results which have lots of positive externalities (helps other
people with their research). That will make people more
productive by developing new technologies. (Do not fund
firms because their research normally only helps them without
any positive externalites.) (Note that this contradicts
#2 in the section on the automobile industry.)
3) Improve infrastructure. This will lower the costs of
production since products can get to their destination less
costly.
4) Move towards freer trade, i.e., lower tariffs and remove
other trade restrictions. This will force companies to
keep their costs down by being more
productive. (This contradicts #2 on how to bring back
heavy industry.)
What President Trump has done:
1) He has cut funding to poor school
districts. https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/donald-trumps-proposal-cut-department-education-could-impact-rural-urban-districts
This is the exact opposite of what he should have done if
he wanted to spur long-run growth.
2) He has cut so much funding that many of the researchers are
going to other countries. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00938-y
https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/trump-cancels-federal-research-grants-what-are-consequences
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/mapping-federal-funding-cuts-to-us-colleges-and-universities/
This is the exact opposite of what he should have done if he
wanted to spur long-run growth.
3) He has cancelled many infrastructure projects which the
Biden administration started. I could not find a good
summary, but he has cancelled just billions in California
rails, billions in Massachusetts roads,
and many environmental infrastructure projects.
This is the exact opposite of what he should have done if
he wanted to spur long-run growth.
4) He has increased tariffs on virtually everything. https://taxfoundation.org/research/all/federal/trump-tariffs-trade-war/
This article actually estimates the long-run damage done
to the economy. This is the exact
opposite of what he should have done if he wanted to spur
long-run growth.
Cut
government waste and fraud and reduce the budget deficit:
1) Hire more inspector generals. They catch
fraud and waste. Each one saves the government more than
their salary.
2) Hire more IRS agents. Most audits bring in more
revenue. Auditors bring in more money than their
salary. Also, with more audits, fewer people are going
to cheat on their taxes. That will bring in more
revenue.
3) Increase taxes. Since we are on the left-hand side of
the Laffer Curve, higher tax rates bring in more revenue.
4) Cut government spending. This is self-explanatory.
What President Trump has done:
1) The first group of people President Trump and
DoGE fired were dozens of inspector generals. https://campaignlegal.org/update/significance-firing-inspectors-general-explained
and only replaced one in October. https://www.kbtx.com/2025/10/07/trump-taps-longtime-investigator-serve-next-justice-department-watchdog/
This is the exact opposite of what he should have done if
he wanted to reduce waste and fraud.
2) The second group of people President Trump and DoGE fired
were IRS agents. https://nstp.org/article/trump-just-hired-6700-irs-workers-middle-tax-season-thats-huge-mistake
This is the exact opposite of what he should have done if
he wanted to reduce waste and fraud, and to bring in more
revenue.
3) President Trump cut taxes. https://bipartisanpolicy.org/explainer/what-does-the-one-big-beautiful-bill-cost/
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/08/trump-tax-cuts-calculator-see-how-the-new-law-affects-your-pay.html
This is the exact opposite of what he should have done if
he wanted to bring in more revenue.
4) President Trump hired DoGE to lay off people. The way
the layoffs were done has ended up costing more in lawsuits
and rehiring people. So, it cost us more. As for
other spending, he did slightly decrease government
spending. Mostly what he did was change where the money
is spent. https://fortune.com/article/doge-mass-federal-workforce-cuts-taxpayers-billions/
https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-reports/doges-big-illusion-the-heavy-costs-of-the-trump-administrations-so-called-efficiency/
This is done in such a way that the impact is virtually
zero.
Help
the automobile industry:
1) Lower tariffs on imported steel, aluminum, and
car parts. This will lower their costs of production.
2) Subsidize some parts of the production, like electric
vehicle production. (Note that this contradicts #2 in
the section of spurring the
long-term growth.)
What President Trump has done:
1) He put high tariffs on all of those items. https://www.cfr.org/article/trumps-new-aluminum-and-steel-tariffs-explained-six-charts
https://www.apmresearchlab.org/10x/dozens-of-qs-auto-parts-tariffs
This is the exact opposite of what he should have done if
he wanted to help the automobile industry.
2) He cut funding for these projects. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/trump-hits-brakes-electric-vehicle-growth-now-2025-07-28/
This is the exact opposite of what he should have done if
he wanted to help the automobile industry.
Make
our firms more competitive:
1) Increase anti-trust enforcement. When
anti-trust enforcement is greater, firms are forced to compete
to grow. That keeps them efficient. (Look at what
happened to the steel and automobile industries in the 1950s
and 1960s when anti-trust action was not taken. They became
lazy and inefficient.) I will provide references
soon.
2) Reduce tariffs and other trade restrictions. This
will force our companies to keep their costs down be being
more productive.
What President Trump has done:
1) He has cut back on anti-trust enforcement.
https://www.cdr-news.com/categories/competition-business-crime/ftc-enforcement-fewer-resources-and-a-streamlined-focus/
https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/trumps-antitrust-enforcers-get-out-way-multibillion-dollar-deals-2025-07-10/
https://www.promarket.org/2025/08/11/trump-is-weaponizing-antitrust-and-regulation-us-consumers-will-suffer/
This is the exact opposite of what he should have done if
he wanted to make our firms more competitive.
2) He has increased tariffs. https://taxfoundation.org/research/all/federal/trump-tariffs-trade-war/
https://www.tradecomplianceresourcehub.com/2025/09/17/trump-2-0-tariff-tracker/
This is the exact opposite of what he should have done if
he wanted to make our firms more competitive.
Lower
energy costs:
1) Subsidize all forms of energy.
What President Trump has done:
1) He has kept subsidizing fossil fuels but cut
subsidies to renewable energy and nuclear energy. https://grist.org/international/global-renewable-energy-report-2025-ember/
Half of this opposite of what he should have done if he
wanted to lower energy costs, but half of this is what he
should have done if you want to lower energy costs while
ignoring the environment..
Bring
back heavy industry:
1) Lower energy costs (see above about how to do
that.) Those industries are energy intensive
industry, so lowering energy costs will lower their costs of
production.
2) Put import tariffs on those industries only. (This
contradicts #4 of how to spur long-term growth.)
This will give them less competition, so they can make money.
What President Trump has done:
1) He partially did this and partially did the
opposite of this. (See above about energy.) Half of
this opposite of what he should have done if he wanted to
lower energy costs to help heavy industry, but 1/2 of this
is what he should have done.
2) He did this, but remember this contradicts what he should
have done to how
to spur long-term growth. This is of what he
should have done if he wanted to help heavy industry but is
the opposite of what he should have done for long-term
growth.