The economic story of America for the past several decades has been one of increasing overall economic growth, accompanied by a hollowed-out industrial core and a constantly struggling middle class.
President Donald Trump, however, is emerging as an antidote — if not the antidote — to the quasi-intentional emaciating of everyday Americans’ economic lives.
Trump has overseen the very first increases in real wages for hourly workers since Richard Nixon — now almost 60 years ago.
“Blue-collar workers have seen real wages grow almost two percent in the first five months of President Trump’s second term — a stark contrast from the negative wage growth seen during the first five months of the Biden Administration,” a fact sheet from the White House noted.
There was indeed a 1.7 percent pay increase in real terms, according to Treasury Department data cited by the New York Post.
President Richard Nixon was the last commander in chief to see an actual increase in positive growth for blue-collar workers.
That was all the way back in 1969.
Nixon saw 0.8 percent growth during his term in office, meaning Trump is outpacing him, so far, by nearly double.
“The only other time it’s been this high was … during President Trump’s first term,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent noted in an interview with the Post.
Is Trump a strong ally for working-class Americans?
Trump indeed saw 1.3 percent real wage growth for hourly workers during his first four years.
“We’ve seen real wages for hourly workers, non-supervisory workers, rise almost 2 percent in the first five months,” he added.
“No president has done that before.”
Real wages essentially track the increase in nominal pay when considering inflation. The lack of progress was a constant talking point during the George W. Bush presidency for Democrats suffering from Post-Hanging-Chad Derangement Syndrome.
Yet they didn’t make a peep about the issue during eight years of Obama and four years of Biden. (In fact, they preferred to tout the strength of an economy that was siphoning wealth from those flyover-country Americans and into the pockets of the elite.)
Trump has managed the feat by bringing inflation back under control, allowing real wages to rise, and improving buying power for heartland Americans.
Bessent was not shy in noting that the deportation of illegal aliens has also helped to improve wages.
“Biden opened the border, and it was flooded,” Bessent recalled. “And for working Americans, that’s a disaster because it’s pressure on their wages.”
The causes for declining take-home pay and worsening living standards for everyday American families haven’t exactly been a mystery.
Overregulation stymies economic activity. Illegal immigration suppresses wages. High taxation decreases standards of living.
None of those policies happen without help from politicians and bureaucrats.
The Biden administration could have chosen inflation and wage declines, but they chose to manage those declines instead — pursuing anti-growth policies and shoveling out billions and billions to other countries and elite-controlled slush funds via USAID.
Trump, unlike many of his predecessors, has not only been willing but also able to reverse the decline. Part of that willingness comes from a true love for whatever you want to call us — everyday, salt-of-the-earth, working-class, or heartland Americans.
As we begin to enjoy this hopeful trajectory born of Trump’s love for everyday Americans, we should also remember what the Democratic Party called us for years: clingers, deplorables, irredeemable, Neanderthals, garbage.
Just think about that. That’s what Democratic leaders said … publicly. Imagine what they said privately.
No wonder we’ve suffered so long. The masters of half the country’s politicians hate the people who make America great.
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