On TV, Trump Created Illusions. He Can't Seem to do it in Politics

When Trump was a television star, he created the illusion of a brilliant boss. That mythical boss knew which contestant should move up and which should be fired. It wasn't "real" but an illusion of something that looked real.

Now his stock is falling as well as the stock of MAGA. They are not falling because of bad luck. They are falling because Trump cannot see the politics has an element of illusion and a President needs to use illusion to make himself look good or distract from the bad. 

Trump and MAGA arrived with the notion we were getting a bad deal in trade, grocery prices were too high, we needed more manufacturing and the borders were too porous. These were illusions. Trade terms were good for us and for China, grocery prices had gone up because of the covid bailout and would correct themselves by production and consumers avoiding the highest priced items, manufacturing would not return and the borders allowed lots of illegals that worked hard for little and lower prices of lots of goods and services, including food.

The smart way for Trump and MAGA to deal with these illusions would have been to pretend to solve them but let time and random events provide the real solution. In trade, he should have demanded some small change and declared victory. He should have claimed, created the illusion, he changed things when he actually left things as they were. But he actually raised some tariffs. China stopped buying grain hurt farmers. Chinese imports prices went up causing inflation. There has not been, nor will there be, a big boost in manufacturing. Trump should have talked about finishing his wall. It would not slow illegal entry but would not have hurt the economy. Instead, he actually rounded up people, raising food prices and hurting his standing among parts of the public.

By not understanding illusions Trump needlessly shot himself in the foot.