“It’s We The People who’re being tested in this election – will we pursue the democratic values and progressive policies the great majority of us want for our children? Or will we fall into the egomaniacal autocracy and corporate kleptocracy that Trump is openly promising?” Jim Hightower, political commentator

Agenda47 is the policy platform for Trump's second administration. It is a case study in ridiculous bombast masquerading as a policy document. It is devoid of any serious, thoughtful policy proposals. Agenda47 is full of ridiculous, inaccurate statements, half truths and attacks on his opponents and various groups of people.

Everyone should read these rants on his campaign website (donaldjtrump.com – both the the “Agenda47” and “Issues” tabs). 

See for yourself the irrational, destructive demagoguery he promises to implement. Then ask yourself, “Is this what I want for my children or grandchildren?”

During elections there is a lot of mudslinging, name calling and bemoaning how the country will perish if so-in-so wins. Politics, in our undemocratic system, has always been ugly. But this year sets a record for ridiculous bombast, deception, twisted facts and blatant lies.

Trump personifies all this ugliness. He has been proven to be a liar and manipulator of the truth. Numerous reliable news sources and nonpartisan research and advocacy organizations have fact checked many of Trump's statements and found the vast majority to be inaccurate or misleading. Rarely in years of tracking his bombast has any of these reliable sources rated a Trump statement as true.

Let's look at just a few of the crazy things in Agenda47 and examine the real world consequences for all of us.

A major theme is Trump's promise to dismantle the “deep state.” This is what the extremist Republicans call the federal government and the nonpartisan civil service employees who actually run the government. 

Managing this essential bureaucracy is the President's primary responsibility. This is done by setting the organizational culture and by appointments to various departments and agencies.

Trump's chaotic management while president, including his disregard for facts, claims to know more than experts, combative rhetoric, encouragement of violence and verbal attacks anyone who challenged his actions, has been widely reported. The inexperience and lack of qualifications for many of his appointments has been well documented. 

The fact was Trump was a very poor manager of the immensely important executive branch of our government. This is why many experts have declared him the worst president in our history.

Cutting taxes and federal spending is another major theme. In Agenda47 Trump says, “I will use the president’s long-recognized impoundment power to squeeze the bloated federal bureaucracy for massive savings. This will be in the form of tax reductions for you. This will help quickly to stop inflation and slash the deficit." 

But there are reality problems with this campaign posturing.

Actually the president has very limited power to cut spending. He does not have line-item veto authority. He can propose budgets but Congress controls the purse. His “impoundment powers” are limited by federal law and not “long-recognized.” This tactic will only result in many lawsuits and years of acrimony. 

Plus it is well known that tax cuts explode – not reduce – deficits. Nor will it have any significant impact on inflation which has many causes unrelated to federal spending. 

In addition, the Pentagon – the largest “bloated bureaucracy” with the most waste – will be exempt from Trump's cuts. So, important programs will be cut but overall federal spending will not be significantly reduced.

In Agenda47 Trump threatens to dramatically increase tariffs, especially with China. For decades Republicans have advocated free trade and globalization. This allowed U.S. companies to exploit cheap foreign labor, avoid environmental rules and make more profits. 

Trump is correct that globalization hurt American workers and manufacturing. But trade wars with China are not the answer as Trump's own actions proved during his prior administration.

Trump's rantings on education are especially troubling. The man knows nothing about education and has never attended a public school. But he arrogantly claims he will create “great schools leading to great jobs.” His education proposals are a crazy quilt of culture war rubbish, pandering to the religious right and ridiculous non-solutions. Nothing in his agenda will improve public education.

He falsely claims public schools are “...indoctrinating young people with inappropriate racial, sexual, and political material.” He will, “...get Critical Race Theory, transgender ideology, and left-wing indoctrination out of our schools.” He pushes “school choice” and public funding for private schools. He proposes a $10,000 a year, per child tax break for home schooling. 

He buys into the shortsighted notion that education is for job training and proposes work programs in schools (which already exist). He attacks academic freedom and advocates "patriot education" (that is politicized instruction). His agenda includes right wing tropes like prayer in schools and eliminating the Department of Education.

Trump's craziest proposal is to require “annual local elections of school principles.” He claims this will ensure “parental control, and that “students are receiving the best possible education.” But this plan would only create chaos in the operation of local schools. It would inject politics into hiring local school leaders who should be selected for their competency and experience.

In 2016 Trump ran on saving jobs in the coal industry. This time he will “roll back every Biden policy that is brutalizing American autoworkers.” He didn't do anything for the coal industry. He knows nothing about manufacturing and is unlikely to “save” the auto industry. His Agenda47 rants will do the opposite.

Trumps Agenda47 attacks green energy and electric cars, promotes fossil fuels, weakens auto emission standards and opposes efforts to mitigate climate change. Trump will “end Biden’s assault on the internal combustion engine and cancel his harmful April 2023 emission regulations that are projected to kill 117,000 auto manufacturing jobs” (a made up number). 

He promises to “create a special team of warrior lawyers to identify every unnecessary federal regulation hampering the American auto industry and immediately eliminate them”. He will a pull out of international climate change negotiations All this will only hurt America's competitiveness in the world economy.

Agenda47 is is full of many harmful policies on many subjects. It will not be good for anyone including most businesses and the wealthy. Read it for yourself. Don't rely on the campaign attack ads to make your voting decision.