It would seem at some point that Trump supporters would begin to ask the question, “Is he really worth the cost?” I wonder how Rudy Giuliani would answer that question now that he has been ordered to pay almost $150 million in real and punitive damages to the two Georgia election workers he admittedly lied about regarding the ‘Big Lie’ while supporting Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Fox News reached a settlement in which they agreed to pay $787.5 million dollars to Dominion Voting Systems just before the lawsuit was set to go to trial. Fox News was sued by Dominion for falsely pushing the narrative that the 2020 election results were rigged in part due to the Dominion voting machines being tampered with. In addition, there is another similar lawsuit against Fox News by Smartmatic for $2.7 billion. That suit has not yet gone to trial and there is no settlement agreement to date.
Virtually everyone in Trump’s orbit has had to ‘lawyer up’ at some point and incur the mounting legal bills. Trump often promises to pay these bills but often, that turns out to be a hollow promise. Many people in Trump’s orbit have gone to jail or are facing possible prison time. Some attorneys working for him have been censured or will possibility lose their law licenses and be disbarred. I suspect if one were to add up all of the legal bills racked up by Trump, Trump’s kids, the Trump organization and every single individual in Trump’s orbit who has had to retain counsel, the number would be in the tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars. It likely exceeds the GDP of some countries. What a frigging waste.
There are not only real economic and personal costs to those in Trump’s immediate orbit, but there are real economic costs to every single American. First, there is the increase in the Federal deficit of $7 billion that occurred during the Trump administration which is now largely ignored by suddenly fiscally responsible Republicans. But there is also the huge adverse economic impact of Trump’s failed trade war with China. The analysis by the tax foundation concluded the tariffs imposed on Chinese goods during the Trump administration cost the American consumers $80 billion. That is essentially a tax increase on the American consumer and one of the largest tax increases in decades. (Another fact conveniently ignored by Republicans!)
Trump has exacted an economic toll across a wide spectrum of people and businesses. There is a well-documented trail of businesses that have not been paid and banks left holding the bag when his businesses have gone bankrupt. He ultimately had to turn to Deutsche Bank because no US lender would do business with him. Think of all the students who paid thousands of dollars for Trump University courses who were essentially defrauded. And then, of course, there is the ongoing grift of soliciting donations from people who can probably not afford to make such donations under questionable premises like ‘Stop The Steal.’ There are serious monetary costs associated with aligning oneself with Donald Trump.
Even if one were to ignore all the hyperbolic bloviating, childish insults, authoritarian threats made by Trump, and the massive national security breaches, and just look at dollars and cents, everyone needs to ask themselves, can we afford to have this man as president? Can we afford to be associated with this man? We are all paying for his ‘sins’ one way or another. Is this really the best use of our tax dollars or our personal bank accounts to have this man in the White House. It certainly seems to me that the cost-benefit analysis just doesn’t pan out for Trump.
The only people for whom the cost-benefit of having Trump in office will pan out are those people who can manipulate Trump to get what they want – some very wealthy people, people like Putin, and religious zealots (read Christian nationalists) who only care about forcing their moralistic worldview on everyone else even if it means sacrificing democracy in the process. For most Americans, Trump is just not worth the cost – literally! If he gets re-elected, hang on to your piggy bank! It will be even worse next time.