By Jack Bernard, contributing columnist
PEACTREE CITY, Ga. | Although I disagree with many of his policies and his aversion to telling the truth, I have always believed Donald Trump to be one of the nation’s shrewdest politicians. That is how a twice impeached former President who instigated an insurrection got re-elected.
And that is why I fail to see why he is adopting the same “head in the sand” sure-fire failure approach to addressing the nation’s major problems that his predecessor took.
Even the conservative Wall Street Journal has questioned that approach. Per WSJ’s Daniel Bach: “President Trump uses his State of the Union to celebrate an economic turnaround many voters aren’t seeing.”
Biden was mentally and physically impaired for the latter part of his term. He never effectively addressed the two big issues facing Americans in 2024: the economy and immigration. His 2023 State of the Union addresses reflected this fact: “We are building an economy where no one is left behind.”
At the time, primarily due to the worldwide pandemic, inflation was 6.5 percent with groceries up 11.8 percent. Biden failed to forcefully and directly address this issue. Some of the more astute Democratic economic advisors understood this fact. Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor in the Clinton Administration stated: “He needs to acknowledge that the economy is still not working for most people.”
By the time of the 2024 election, annual inflation was down to 2.9 percent, not much different than it is now. But, along with his failure to control the border, it was obvious that the damage to public opinion had already been done.
Now, Trump is doing the same thing. In his speech, he claimed-
“…healthcare, which will better healthcare at a much lower cost.” The reality is that healthcare costs are rising- “Projected health care cost trend jumped to almost 8 percent for 2025, the highest amount in more than a decade.”
Having most favored nations drug pricing is an example of an excellent goal articulated numerous times by Trump. The problem is that, even with the tariffs Trump imposed, that has not happened. For example, “patented drugs in Canada cost 35–45 percent less than in the U.S. on average.”
Plus, as usual, Trump made claims that the national price of gasoline now averages $2.30 per gallon. In fact, with a national average of $2.90 per gallon, as of February 2026, it does not average that amount in any state.
Biden blew it by having virtually open borders, but never acknowledging it, one reason Trump was re-elected. But Trump has gone overboard in the other direction, authorizing gangs of masked ICE agents to go into schools and medical facilities to arrest innocent children and mothers. Trump ignored the highly negative public perception of the recent Minneapolis killings of two U.S. citizens, stating “sanctuary cities…protect the criminals”; “blocking the removal of these people out of our country.”
It is amazing that the ruling elite in Washington can be so out of touch with the common working person. It is one of the few items that is truly bipartisan.
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