Donald Trump, who has become the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, is using an untruthful “constant stream of doublespeak” about the economy to win over perspective voters, says CNBC and MSNBC contributor Ron Insana.
“Nearly every one of Donald Trump's economic claims can be refuted with verifiable facts and readily available studies, on trade, immigration, alleged currency manipulation and whether or not we are ‘winning,’" Insana recently wrote for
CNBC.com.
“Whether we are getting killed on trade or being flooded with illegal immigrants, Donald Trump has been making arguments that were, in part, true thirty years ago, but most certainly not today,” claims Insana, the author of four books on Wall Street.
The New York billionaire scored big wins in Florida, Illinois and North Carolina on Tuesday which brought him closer to the 1,237 delegates he needs to win the nomination.
But one loss — in the crucial state of Ohio — left the door open for those in the party trying to stop Trump from becoming the Republican nominee for the Nov. 8 election, Reuters reported. Trump might fall short of the majority required, enabling the party establishment to put forward another name at the July convention in Cleveland to formally pick its candidate,
Reuters reported.
Party leaders are appalled at the real estate developer and reality TV personality's incendiary rhetoric and believe his policy positions are out of step with core Republican sentiment, such as his vow to deport 11 million illegal immigrants, temporarily ban Muslims from the United States and build a wall along the border with Mexico.
Meanwhile, Insana refuted what he described as “Trump's litany of incongruous phrases”:
- "The U.S. Doesn't Win Anymore."
- "China and Japan are killing us on trade."
- "Illegal Immigrants are pouring over the border."
“Trump's "truths" are easy to debunk,” Insana wrote, listing facts he said proved Trump wrong:
- "The U.S has the largest economy in the world, 50 percent bigger than China's in nominal terms, roughly equal to that of a combined Europe and considerably larger than Japan's," Insana wrote.
- "U.S. per capita income is roughly $50,000, or 10 times that of China, while our debt-to-GDP ratio is considerably smaller than those of China, Japan and many other developed nations," Insana claimed.
- "As for claims about trade and immigration, very few, if any, are true. The U.S. has been a big winner on trade in recent years, contrary to one of Trump's major claims," Insana contended.
- U.S. exports have hovered near record levels, he said.
- Neither China, nor Japan, have been aggressively devaluing their currencies in recent years, he said.
- "As for overall trade, which by the way, represents 23 percent of economic activity in the U.S., America's position is getting stronger every day," Insana wrote.
- "It is true that we run trade deficits with several other countries, but as a percentage of GDP, the U.S. current account deficit with other nations, the broadest measure of trade, is at its lowest levels in decades, only 2.2 percent of GDP," Insana wrote.
- Vast numbers of studies have shown that there is a net positive impact on the U.S. economy when immigrants enter the U.S., whether they come legally, or illegally, Insana claims.
Meanwhile, liberal New York financier George Soros, whose effort to unseat President George W. Bush in 2004 shattered political spending records, is returning to big-ticket giving after an 11-year hiatus,
Bloomberg reported.
Soros has spent or committed more than $13 million to support Hillary Clinton and other Democrats this election cycle, already more than his total disclosed spending in the last two presidential elections combined.
Soros has expressed alarm over the past few months at the candidacies of Republicans Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. In a statement last week about a new group he's funding to increase voting by Latinos and immigrants in the election, he again mentioned the two candidates by name.
"The intense anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric that has been fueled by the Republican primary is deeply offensive," Soros said in the statement. "There should be consequences for the outrageous statements and proposals that we've regularly heard from candidates Trump and Cruz."
(Newsmax wire services contributed to this report).
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