The Trump Show of Illusion
July 27, 2025•646 words
“Trump has built his political career on scapegoating immigrants and minorities, while handing the keys of the economy to the richest Americans and the biggest corporations.” - Robert Reich
“Trump offers people a reality show instead of reality, and blames the weak instead of challenging the powerful. It’s classic shock doctrine use chaos to distract while the rich cash in.” - Naomi Klein
“Economic inequality has exploded in recent decades... populist leaders like Trump exploit this by blaming globalization or immigrants, instead of the fiscal and political decisions that caused it.” - Thomas Piketty
“Trump is not the disease. He is the symptom. He is what happens when a society disintegrates into a culture of lies, when neoliberalism devours everything, and then blames the most vulnerable.” - Chris Hedges
You're being shown an economic leadership style that manipulates appearances rather than reality.
Even when more general economic indicators point to problems, Donald Trump frequently uses selective statistics, such as a rising stock market, as evidence of economic success when discussing the state of the economy. He draws your attention to uplifting headlines, while actual wages fall behind, expenses soar, and the majority of economic gains go to the top 10%, who own the great majority of stocks. Underlying this performance is a growing disconnect between stock prices and the real economy. Instead of affecting the lives of regular Americans, the amazing profits are concentrated in a small number of overhyped tech giants.
A potent diversion.
Trump blames foreign countries, China, immigrants, and trade agreements rather than addressing decades of destructive neoliberal policies that have destroyed industry, eroded social support, and hollowed out the middle class. In order to strategically shift the blame for economic decline, his rhetoric portrays immigrants as scapegoats rather than as human beings. He informed voters that immigrants, not Wall Street deregulation, tax breaks for the wealthy, or an erosion of union protections, were to blame for their suffering. This story was a planned "lie" that he "had to tell if he was to serve his rich corporate masters." 40 years of neoliberal policy were the cause of the economic suffering, which was a blame game in which immigrants played a major role in a fictitious decline drama.
These economic measures eventually start to seem like a betrayal.
Trump pledged to drain the swamp, stop forever wars, and cure inflation. However, he backed off from exposing figures like Epstein, foreign conflicts intensified, and inflation skyrocketed under his tariffs. In order to provide benefits for the 1%, he cut Medicaid, healthcare, scientific research, and other social programs that you depend on, while favouring the wealthiest Americans with his tax cuts. In the meantime, personal debt is on the rise, mortgage and auto loan defaults are on the rise, and many of you are left with a negative net worth and are using credit to pay for daily necessities. Trump's never-ending tirade of criticism directed at immigrants is meant to divert your attention from strategies that were never meant to benefit you.
The illusion eventually begins to fall apart.
You start to notice the difference between Trump's claims and his actual performance. You observe how the wealthiest people are protected while your expenses rise and your income remains stagnant or you have lost your job due to Trump's cuts. You feel lied to, as if Trump's political show was only intended to divert your attention rather than to help you. When you see that his constant finger-pointing at immigrants was never done to protect you but rather to keep you looking bad, it stops being true. Even many members of his MAGA base start to feel deceived as trust erodes.