by David Haggith, The Great Recession Blog:

Trump’s supporters are increasingly alarmed, outspoken and feeling betrayed as their champion rolls over and plays lap dog for the political establishment. Even Rush Limbaugh, Trump’s golfing buddy and longtime advocate, said this week that what is happening with Trump and the Republicans is a “sellout” and “betrayal.”

With the US economy sinking in the first quarter toward the netherlands of recession (GDP growth of 0.7%), my prediction that the the economy will really start to fall apart in the early summer — in spite of Trump’s victory and the Trump Rally in stocks — looks increasingly likely with each passing week. Meanwhile my warning last year that Trump would likely prove to be a Trojan horse for the establishment is, as of this week, finally proven. Consider the following analysis of Trump’s acquiescence to every failure of his purported agenda:

Trump gets thumped on Obamacare and spending bill

Trump’s Obamacare Repeal 2.0 is teetering on the edge of defeat. Even if it gets approved, it has already retreated on Trump’s promises about things like pre-existing conditions, which he swore repeatedly during his campaign would remain as they are. If Trump was ever serious about making sure certain provisions of Obamacare that the majority of Americans like remain, why doesn’t he tell Republicans now that, if the bill passes without his campaign promises safeguarded, he will veto it? He is making no attempt at strong-arming in the safeguards he swore he’d protect. No attempt.

Trump talked tough like that in the Repeal 1.0 round, saying it would be the Republicans one and only chance to do this right, and then he caved in by starting Repeal 2.0. In this round, he’s not talking at all. The veto threat is notably absent. While that’s a win for arch conservatives, it is still a breach of Trump’s promise, which he doesn’t seem to hold very dear at this point.

On all other matters, conservatives lose, and Trump still doesn’t defend his promises. The 2017 spending bill looks like it will give Trump a big fat goose egg. If it passes as is, Trump gets nothing he wanted (nothing he promised anyway), and he already appears to be willing to accept that as he has Mike Pence dressing the present draft up as a great victory. Here is a list of the campaign promises broken in this bill:

No money for a border wall, and no apparent withholding of funds from Mexico so they can pay for the wall either. So, no wall this year.

No funding of a “special deportation task force” that Trump promised would remove millions of illegal immigrants right away as an immediate security threat.

No elimination of funding for Planned Parenthood.

No reduction in government spending or in funding for agencies like the EPA that Trump has said he wants to pare down. Even non-defense spending rises by billions.

No apparent reduction of funding for sanctuary cities to help pay for his other increases.

160 Republican riders were flushed by the Democrats, including those that were part of Trump’s promised deregulation.

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