Dear Trump & Kudlow: This Is Not 'A Golden Age.' Your Delusions Fuel the Rise of the Democrat Socialists (DSA)
Yesterday - on Sunday, because the Internet never rests? I received in my inbox an op-ed from Larry Kudlow.
For those of you who don’t know…:
“Lawrence Alan Kudlow is an American conservative broadcast news analyst, economist, columnist, journalist, political commentator, and radio personality. He is a financial news commentator for Fox Business and served as the director of the National Economic Council during the Trump administration from 2018 to 2021.”
I’ve met Larry. He is a very nice guy.
That said: Kudlow is a standard-issue Washington, DC center-right economy guy. He is exactly the type of Republican economist - that is killing the Republican Party.
Kudlow’s economic messaging - is the Republicans’ economic messaging. And it is more tone deaf than a year’s worth of nationwide karaoke contests.
Here’s Kudlow’s Sunday headline and sub-head….
Prosperity Is Not Enough:
“The economy is booming, but voters remain unconvinced. With the Democratic left gaining ground, Republicans risk squandering an advantage they should own.”
You need not read another word - to get the entire gist of how wrong Kudlow is.
“Prosperity is not enough”
What prosperity? The US is almost $40 trillion in debt. $4 trillion of that is just since President Trump was last sworn in.
I don’t care what else you think is going on. A country running up that much debt is absolutely NOT prosperous.
If I’m making $60,000 a year - but I’m adding $30,000 per year to my credit cards? You wouldn’t call what I am doing “prosperity.”
Oh: And Social Security and Medicare are at least $175 trillion short.
The US is absolutely not a land of “prosperity.”
“The economy is booming”
No. It is not. Unless you’re already a billionaire. Because the US economy isn’t free market capitalism - it’s diet fascism.
You’ve heard the phrase “K-shaped economy,” yes? That’s where the rich get rapidly richer - the upper arm of the K. While the rest of us get rapidly poorer - the lower arm of the K.
K-ing the economy is what the US does. In fact, it is what the US has done for several decades:
“After being relatively low in the 1960s and 1970s, inequality began rising sharply from the 1980s onward. By 2025, it reached its highest level in modern U.S. history….
“According to the Federal Reserve, the net worth of America’s top 1% reached a record share of nearly 32% of total U.S. wealth in the third quarter of 2025. In contrast, the bottom 50% of Americans together held only about 2.5% of total net wealth.”
Which undoubtedly means a corresponding disparity in incomes...:
“The Gini index - a measure of income distribution ranging from 0 (perfect equality) to 100 (maximum inequality) - was 34.7 in 1980, the lowest in the 1965–2025 period economicsinsider.com. By 2025, it had climbed to 42, the highest in six decades.”
US stock markets are hitting record highs. But the bottom half of U.S. households own just 1% of the nation’s stock market wealth. The wealthiest 1% hold more than the bottom 90% combined. So these spoils too - go to the already spoiled.
And then there’s inflation:
“From 1970 to 2025, prices rose approximately 727–751%, meaning goods and services cost roughly 8.3–8.5 times more than in 1970.”
Oh: And the US population currently holds a record personal debt total of almost $19 trillion. 25% of Americans are now using Buy Now Pay Later - for groceries.
None of this is indicative of an economy that is booming.
“Voters remain unconvinced”
Of course they remain unconvinced. There is nothing by which to be convinced. There is no prosperity. The economy ain’t booming.
Voters have been living all of this horrendous reality. And then some. They aren’t DC Delusional. They can’t afford to be.
“With the Democratic left gaining ground, Republicans risk squandering an advantage they should own.”
That’s Kudlow also missing the entirety of that point.
There isn’t any advantage for Republicans to own. The economy stinks on ice.
And it certainly appears he bizarrely thinks “the Democratic left is gaining ground” - totally unrelated to the economy. Because he bizarrely thinks the economy is “booming.”
The Democrat Socialists of America (DSA) are on the rise? Precisely because Trump, Kudlow and the Republicans are so delusional about the economy.
Americans are hurting economically. Badly.
Americans see the economy already shedding jobs - “unexpectedly” only in DC.
Americans are told Artificial Intelligence (AI) will in the next several years take most of the rest of their jobs. And they see “President Trump, Tech Leaders Unite to Power American AI Dominance.”
Americans see AI’s data centers destroying their neighborhoods. And thousands of new, ever-larger data centers being planned. And they see President Trump say “You can’t fight it. You have to go with it.”
Americans see a pointless, un-winnable and apparently endless Iran war massively increasing prices and inflation. And they hear President Trump say “I love the inflation.”
Americans hear President Trump repeatedly call all of this nightmare mess - “A Golden Age.”
And Americans read Kudlow wondering why this “booming” “prosperity” isn’t resonating with them.
Totally and completely out of touch? Is no way to win elections. Or the American people.
Democrat Socialists are advancing? Because they are the only ones acknowledging there’s a problem.