It should come as no surprise that a politician with an ill-defined slogan to “Make America Great Again,” would end up spending a lot of his time looking backward. Trump’s governing approach puts a lot more emphasis on “again” than “great,” so he ends up retreating from many of his own policies.
The latest came today, as Reuters reports Trump is telling advisors to calm Midwest farmers upset over the administration’s decision to allow refiners to add less ethanol into gasoline.
This comes at a time when concerns of a recession have begun to get under Trump’s skin, posing a potentially bigger threat to his presidency than impeachment. Along with the Trade War with China, the ethanol issue is just one more self-inflicted wound that is especially damaging in the Midwest, where Trump will need a strong showing to win re-election. The Washington Post reported on another key self-inflicted Midwest wound last week, citing Trump’s failure to make good on promises of expanding the Navy, which is likely to cost many jobs in Midwest shipyards and elsewhere. Really just political malpractice.
Despite strong and historically significant signals from the bond market about the potential for a recession, Trump and his minions continue to trot out echoes of President Herbert Hoover claiming our economic fundamentals are good, just as Hoover did in October of 1929.
Meanwhile, the economy, as measured by a number of factors, including job growth, is falling back to levels not seen since we began climbing out of the Great Recession. Proving that Trump is falling behind the achievements of president Obama, and Trump knows it. But his economic team does not appear up to the task of heading off, nevermind recovering from, a recession.
Backtracking for Trump isn’t limited to the economy, either. After seeming to embrace an overwhelmingly popular (supported by 90% of Americans) gun safety measure with stronger background checks, Trump is backing off and siding with the NRA again.
As Trump moves backwards on guns, and the economy moves backward to dangerous territory, have a Fallback cocktail from Sasha Petraske (originally meant for an Autumn menu but I’m as ready for a season change as a regime change at this point). The fallback is:
2 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
.5 oz Amaro Nonino
.5 oz Carpano Antica
1 oz applejack
1 oz rye whiskey
orange twist garnish
Build in a whiskey glass, adding the bitters, amaro, Carpano Antica, applejack and rye add 1 large cube and stir until chilled and garnish.
Cheers!
Gin & Bitters 