Donald Trump's Economic Policies Would be Disastrous

In honor of Donald Trump's Reddit AMA that he is conducting in his safe space, here's some real questions for him to answer.


One of the key platforms of your economic policy is putting 'America First' when it comes to trade. You've threatened to place tariffs as high as 45% on Chinese goods, in order to protect manufacturing jobs. But there is almost unanimous consensus amongst economists that free trade is good, that NAFTA, which you've railed against, was more beneficial than harmful (see the 2nd question of the first linked poll), that the poor and middle class disproportionally benefit from trade, and that it does not cost jobs on net (some are gained, some are lost). Why do you think you understand his issue better than the vast majority of economists, even those who would normally be ideologically opposed (I.E. Smith, Friedman, Krugman, DeLong, are all in agreement here)?


Deporting over ten million illegal immigrants could cost hundreds of billions of dollars. It would also lose the Federal government revenue, as most of them pay the payroll tax. What benefit justifies this massive increase in our debt, and breaking up millions of families and destroying the livelihoods of people, most of whom are just trying to escape the violence and poverty of the nations they came from?


In a debate, you were asked how your tax cuts would be paid for, when the Tax Foundation estimated they'd cost $10 trillion over 10 years, even when adjusting for the increased economic growth they'd generate. You responded that they'd be paid for by.... growth. How do you really plan on paying for them?


If immigrants reduce our wages and take our jobs, is population growth bad for the economy, too? Should women be prohibited from working to boost wages? Do you not think these people contribute to the economy too - by working, creating businesses, investing, etc.?


You promised to increase spending on military and the vets, while not cutting Medicaid, Medicare, or Social Security. You also say you plan on balancing the budget. Yet, looking at the plans you've listed, a conservative estimate would be that, combined with current deficits, they'd add at least $2 trillion a year to the debt (for a more accurate estimate, see here).
With interest rates set to rise and the boomers retiring, this will only get worse as your administration continues. Given that you've stated you won't cut the biggest budget items, how are we going to even remotely get near a balanced budget? What if a recession or war occurs?

Donald Trump: Putin's Pawn

Trump will be hosting an AMA today on Reddit. Unfortunately, it will be on /r/the_donald, meaning the pro-Trump mods will be able to hide comments and ban users that go against their narrative. It will also be swarmed with pro-Donald users who will be sure to downvote any tough questions for Trump, meaning he will not see them or need to reply to them. So, rather than have my comments deleted, I will place my own 'questions for Trump' here. These are the questions he should be asked, but won't be, because he's decided to retreat to a safe space. I'll divide them into sections since there will be a lot of them.

Russian Ties

If you really don't have financial interests in Russia, or economic ties to the oligarchs or state-owned industries, as you claim, why won't you release your tax returns to prove it? You promised to release them before the election, and now you have backtracked. Why should we take your word for it?

You've gotten the GOP to remove pro-Ukrainian language from their platform and have promised not to protect the Baltic states. Do you think this might empower Putin to try to conquer parts of Eastern Europe? Would this start a new cold war?

Apparently, you believe NATO should both be forced to spend more on defense (fair enough), and also pay a membership fee. Given that you've now promised not to protect NATO members, and want them both to "pay their fair share" and then some, do you think this will effectively be the end of NATO and our longstanding alliances with the various western democracies? If so, why is this desirable?

You're also anti-EU, as evidence by your support of Brexit, and against intervening in Syria against Assad. While I also take those positions, given all these other stances I've listed, how can I be sure these are genuine commitments to decentralization and not attempts to break up the west's unity, especially considering you don't seem to be too heavy on the decentralization here at home?

Your advisers have ties to Russia. Should we be concerned about this? Could this have an influence on your policy?

Why haven't you said anything critical of Putin? Given your willingness to attack just about anyone, it seems a bit odd you won't say anything negative about perhaps the most dangerous and corrupt leader on Earth.

Do you think it was treasonous to call on the Russians to hack a former Secretary of State's emails?

You have been endorsed by Putin, and have now had hackers that were likely agents of the Russian government attempting to sabotage your opponent in order to help you win the election. Given that, and all of the above, how do we trust that you aren't a Russian plant/puppet/Manchurian Candidate?

Edit: And now he's calling for ending sanctions on Russia and recognizing Crimea as a Russian territory. Holy shit.