The Short-Term Gain
(Disclaimer: La Tonique Media LLC does not represent any political ideology. While we do not espouse any political beliefs, we do seek to provide a balance perspective by incorporating voices from both sides of the political spectrum.)
By Stepan Gauvreau
When the New York Times released a massive 11,000 word report of President Donald Trump’s tax returns, few were surprised but many were concerned. The blockbuster piece indicates that Trump–contrary to the image he has promoted–is either a poor businessman, or responsible for a contrived tax fraud scheme. In true fashion, he quickly deflected the report as fake news, further complaining four times that the IRS treats him poorly.
The exposition showed that Trump did not pay federal income taxes in 10 of the last 15 years. Trump has stated that he would be willing to prove that he paid his fair share of taxes as soon as the IRS finishes their audit–a multiyear attempt to determine the validity of a $73 million tax refund from an Obama-era Great Recession stopgap. The president’s spurious claim that he cannot release his tax returns until he is out from under the audit has been refuted by the IRS commissioner.
While the fact that Trump, as president, paid only $750 in income taxes in 2016 and 2017 is shocking, the report confirms a very real pattern that he displays, both as a person and as the president–Donald Trump has a penchant for undermining long-term stability to achieve short-term gains. As the president of the United States of America, this habit is cause for grave concern.
Short-sighted conjecture and policy ideas designed to attract attention and rally his base were common even before Trump announced his presidential run. He has been able to take advantage of the increasingly antipathetic divide in the United States to assemble large swaths of aggrieved voters, employing the intractability of moral disagreements to command a feverish following. Though polarization started long before Trump, Americans are deeply entrenched in their beliefs. We are better sorted, not only by party lines, but also geographically and socially.
Such rampant polarization is damaging to a democratic society, as it stymies cooperation, creates an adversarial relationship between Americans, and saps trust in our institutions. Yet time and again, President Trump divides Americans on racial justice issues, what it means to be an American, immigration policy, and voting rights, among other salient cultural and political topics. This behavior serves only to further widen the vast gulfs in American society.
The implications of a highly divided nation in the backdrop of a pandemic are tremendous. Over 200,000 Americans have died at the hands of COVID-19. Not only is humanity fighting a virus, it is also struggling against a tsunami of accompanying misinformation. Since March trolls, conspiracy theorists, and unwitting Americans have spread lies, half-truths, and misrepresentations about the virus. Trump has himself disseminated and–not surprisingly–been the source of conjecture and misinformation about the virus. His public attitude toward mask wearing and social distancing have invariably led to unnecessary deaths and his own infection by COVID-19.
Besides causing avoidable deaths, the pandemic has ravaged the economy, and the president, hearing the death knell of his second term, rushed to reopen an economy whose workforce was hiding from a deadly infectious disease. Grappling with high unemployment and sharp economic contractions, Trump ignored expert advice urging federal, state, and local governments to tackle the spread of the disease before loosening restrictions, This short-sighted and rushed reopening caused needless American deaths. Indeed, Trump proposed deferring payroll taxes until next year, and though the idea fell flat, it demonstrated his tendency to delay long-term reckoning with duct tape fixes.
By upending established norms and expectations, the era of Trump has caused incalculable harm to the already bruised and imperfect American two-party system. Author and contributor to The Atlantic Tom Nichols asserts that the perversion of the GOP wrought by Trump is in fact irreparable. He lambasts the willingness of conservative Trumpites to use American democracy as a pawn in their culture war and disfigure the political landscape in doing so. Never Trumpers, Reagan Republicans, and other conservatives who abhor Trump have witnessed their Grand Old Party turn into a club for sycophants, followers, and white nationalists parading in the guise of patriotism. In his bid for control, Trump has altered the moral fiber of the GOP, and the wave of changes on which he rode to power will far outlast him. This promises only continued division and acrimony in American politics and society.
“When America sneezes, the world catches a cold,” the adage goes. Thus, the damage of Trump’s shortsightedness is not restricted to the borders of the United States. The United States remains the preponderant global hegemon–despite its decline in this role–and other nations tend to follow where we lead. President Trump has taken aim at this very order by using short-term policies that threaten not only the position of the United States but also humanity’s viability on this planet.
The Paris Climate Agreement is a multilateral accord that sought to fight global warming and better equip countries to deal with the effects of climate change. Sure, it was not the ultimate fix to the challenges we are facing due to human caused climate change. It was, instead, an honest attempt to preserve existing resources, habitats, and human life by setting reasonable emissions targets and establishing a framework for close coordination with signatories.
Trump has displayed a pattern of undermining long-term stability in exchange for short-term gain.
(Getty Images)
Trump unceremoniously withdrew from the agreement, citing its unfairness to America. Trump has not presented an alternative to the Paris Climate Agreement, instead placing the onus on our European partners to create a deal that suits the needs of the United States. Trump often deflects or denies climate change and humanity’s central role in it. Trump champions this manifest refusal of scientific fact, and the Republican party leadership follows suit with thorough passivity or denial of climate change. Increasingly destructive wildfires and hurricanes, longer droughts, melting glaciers and subsequent rising sea levels, and warming temperatures pose an existential threat to humanity, yet this administration has proved incapable of taking this crisis seriously.
The United States has the ability to use its distinguished and unique position in the world to bolster attempts to curb the effects of global warming. Instead the president has waged a war on environmentally conscious regulations at home as he has abroad. Enumerating the very often successful attempts at deregulation reveals a concerted effort to unfetter self-interested business from environmental protections in the name of increased profit. The consequences will hardly be faced by Trump, who is in the winter of his life. Fortunately, even young Republicans recognize the importance of the threat about which Trump has been so callous. Deep attitude shifts among conservatives are a ways away, however, so Trumpian deregulations will have a lasting and injurious impact if not reversed by the next administration.
Though climate change and the complications it ushers are a long-term national security threat to the United States, other national security threats like increasingly armed despotic governments–think Iran and North Korea–also loom large and require comprehensive planning and cooperation. Even in this sphere Trump does not deviate from favoring quick-fix approaches.
The multilateral Obama-era Iran Nuclear Deal (JCPOA) elaborated a methodical plan through which Iran would abandon its attempts to weaponize nuclear power in exchange for a more relaxed sanctions regime. Trump dismissed the deal without offering an alternative, citing Iran’s support of and involvement in terrorism. He called it “a horrible one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made.”
After Trump scrapped U.S. participation in the plan, Iran reduced compliance with JCPOA. Soon after, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called for a “snapback” of multilateral sanctions on Iran that had been lifted in 2016. Despite the United States having left the deal, Pompeo cited Iran’s noncompliance with JCPOA as the need for a return to strict sanctions. Iran subsequently invalidated such demands by highlighting the U.S. withdrawal from the deal. President Trump tossed out a solid and well researched plan designed to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. This national security misstep was an attempt to fulfill a campaign promise designed to show an intransigent opposition to the deals and legacy of former President Barack Obama. As usual, there was no alternative plan to illuminate a way forward.
Trump’s dealings with North Korea offer a similar story in which temporary gains were sought on both sides, rather than a thorough solution to the enduring Korean quagmire. President Trump was able to get commitments for denuclearization and rapprochement with South Korea from Kim Jong Un. When American sanctions were lifted, North Korean compliance followed. When the agreement became inconvenient for North Korea, Kim’s posture shifted from conciliatory to bellicose–while never halting the production of nuclear weapons. Trump’s pugnacious overtures in 2017 were billed as a part of his North Korea strategy. Yet, Trump is guided by coarse impulses and follows instant gratification. Consequently, his administration's North Korea strategy crumbled.
The recent bombshell of President Trump’s paltry income tax payments shocked few. It was simply another shred of evidence that points to a damning conclusion: Donald Trump displays an appalling lack of or disregard for foresight and sacrifices long-term international and domestic stability for short-term personal gain. Even if the business losses posted were the result of a carefully orchestrated tax avoidance scheme, his domestic and foreign policy record indicates an extreme apathy for the future of this country and the world. By pursuing shortsighted policies, the Trump administration is hamstringing the ability of the United States to lead in spheres like climate change and nuclear de-proliferation, which weakens our standing abroad. Spreading and weaponizing racial and social divisions at home promise to destroy our fragile democracy. With this approach, today’s minor wins are tomorrow’s major losses.
Stepan is a political writer for La Tonique.
