Chalamagne Tha God: ‘Dinner table issues’ were at the top of voters’ minds
ABC News
In the aftermath of Kamala Harris’ failed bid for president, Charlamagne Tha God called for unity and pointed to voters’ economic frustrations and concerns over safety as decisive in Donald Trump’s victory.
“I know it feels like the divided states of America over the last several years, but it is still the United States of America,” said the influential radio host who supported Harris. “We’ve got to unify in some way, shape or form.”
Charlamagne (né Lenard McKelvey) co-hosts the popular iHeart Radio program “The Breakfast Club,” which is heard by millions of monthly listeners, and is the author of the new book “Be Honest or Die Lying.”
Harris joined Charlamagne for an audio town hall in October, where she discussed how her economic plan would boost Black communities and cast a Donald Trump presidency in dark terms.
In an interview with ABC News’ Jonathan Karl on “This Week,” Charlamagne said he’s “optimistic” about America regardless of Harris’ loss.
“I do believe in the future of this country because I have no choice but to,” he said.
Following President Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the race and endorse Harris in August, Charlamagne applauded the vice president’s candidacy for energizing the Democratic Party.
Charlamagne said there was “no life whatsoever” with the Biden campaign and had previously called for him to not run for reelection.
“The vice president made a lot of people sit up on the couch and pay attention and at least be curious,” he said. “She has nothing to be ashamed of, she ran a great campaign”
In a stark demographic shift from 2020, Trump won one in three voters of color, notably gaining among Black and Latino voters. Charlamagne attributed part of this shift as “a backlash to race and gender and identity politics.”
Trump improved his 2016 and 2020 numbers in traditional Democratic strongholds, like New Jersey and New Mexico. Charlamagne said that “dinner table issues” were top of mind for voters.
“Every day people wake up and all they want to do is have more money in their pocket and they want to feel safe,” he said. “I don’t care if you’re black, white, gay, straight, whatever religion you are, those are the two things that you’re thinking about every day.”
He also said that Democrats “didn’t know how to message” their stance on immigration, including the bipartisan border bill that Trump and his allies effectively killed.
“It’s not like the Democrats didn’t want border security. They just didn’t know how to message it right,” Charlamagne said. “‘Build the wall’ may sound elementary, but you know what that signals to people? Border security.”
When asked if Harris should have done more to separate herself from Biden, Charlamagne said, “I think that if she wanted to go in a different direction, she should have expressed that.”
He also pointed to Harris’ appearances on “The View” and her interview with Fox’s Brett Baier, where she gave mixed answers on how she would be a different leader than the current president.
Even as an outspoken critic of Trump, Charlamagne said he’s choosing to have a positive outlook on the next four years.
“We just got to hope for the best,” said Charlamagne. “Like, I’m not wishing for America to fail. Why would I want that?”
(WASHINGTON) — With just six weeks until Election Day, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are campaigning in battleground states on Wednesday.
Vice President Kamala Harris is delivering remarks on the economy — a key 2024 issue that polls show Trump leading on with voters — in Pennsylvania. Later this week, she will travel to Arizona for some campaign events and to visit the southern border, according to a source familiar with her plans.
Trump will speak in North Carolina, a state Democrats are eyeing to flip this cycle. Trump is returning to the state as controversy engulfs the Republican nominee for governor, Mark Robinson, who Trump previously supported.
Here’s how the news is developing:
Harris to outline ‘pragmatic’ view on the economy to voters
As Harris seeks to gain ground on the economy, she will outline on Wednesday what her campaign is calling a “pragmatic” view on the issue.
Harris plans to tell voters that “as a capitalist she understands the limitations of government” and that the government must “work in partnership with the private sector and entrepreneurs,” according to the senior official, granted anonymity to preview Harris’s speech. The official noted Harris will make clear “she is unafraid to hold bad actors accountable if she needs to.”
The vice president will also argue that her economic philosophy is “rooted in her middle-class upbringing” and contrast that with Trump’s “gilded path to wealth,” as part of a larger values argument, the official said.
Harris to be interviewed by MSNBC
Harris is participating in an interview with MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle on Wednesday, which will air on the cable network on Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET, MSNBC announced Wednesday morning.
The network frames it as her first solo network interview since she became the nominee.
Harris has done solo interviews with other news outlets: radio stations and local TV stations. Her first media interview since announcing her candidacy took place last month when she did a joint interview with Tim Walz on CNN.
National Intelligence director briefs Trump about Iranian threats
Former President Donald Trump was briefed by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence earlier Tuesday on Iran’s continued assassination threats against him, his campaign said in a new statement, calling the threats “real and specific.”
“Intelligence officials have identified that these continued and coordinated attacks have heightened in the past few months, and law enforcement officials across all agencies are working to ensure President Trump is protected and the election is free from interference,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung wrote in the statement.
“He will let nothing stop him or get in his way to fight for the American people and to Make America Great Again,” Cheung continued.
Harris Arizona campaign office damaged by apparent gunfire for second time in one week: Police
A coordinated campaign office shared by Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign and the Democratic Party in Tempe, Arizona, was damaged by gunfire just after midnight on Monday, the police said Tuesday in a statement to ABC News.
“No one was inside the office during the overnight hours, but this raises concerns about the safety of those who work in that building, as well as those nearby,” Tempe Police spokesperson Sgt. Ryan Cook said.
Police said they received calls from those who worked in the office on Monday afternoon and arrived to what they said appeared to be gunshots through the front windows.
Tempe Police said they are analyzing evidence and were taking “additional measures” after the shooting “to ensure the safety of staff and others in the area.” A motive for the shooting has not yet been determined and the investigation continues, according to the police.
The same office was shot at just a week prior, on Sept. 16, in an incident the police said appeared to involve a BB or pellet gun. That shooting also happened just after midnight and caused “criminal damage,” according to the police.
Harris is scheduled to visit the state on Friday.
In response to the second incident, the Harris campaign offered its thanks to Tempe police.
“Overnight, several shots were fired into our Tempe Democratic Party coordinated campaign office. We are grateful to Tempe Police for coming quickly to the scene and are fortunate no one was present or injured,” read a statement from a campaign spokesperson
Trump, Harris to take part in separate town halls on Univision
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump will participate in two town halls next month hosted by Univision where they will interact with undecided Hispanic voters and respond to questions.
Trump will headline the first town hall, which will take place in Miami on Tuesday, Oct. 8 at 10 p.m. ET, the network announced.
Harris will headline the second Univision town hall, which will take place in Las Vegas on Thursday, Oct. 10 at 10 p.m. ET.
Both events will air coast-to-coast with Spanish-language translation on Univision and stream on ViX’s Noticias 24/7 channel and will also be available in English on Noticias Univision’s YouTube channel.
Mark Robinson hires Trump attorney who fought 2020 election results
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson announced Tuesday that he has hired lawyer Jesse Binnall to represent him in what he calls the “outrageous lies” following reporting by CNN that he posted racist and inflammatory comments on a porn site’s message board a decade ago.
Binnall is known for his representation of former President Donald Trump, including in legal cases involving Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Binnall still represents Trump in legal matters.
“I am confident that Binnall Law Group will leave no stone unturned and enable us to use every legal means to hold CNN accountable for their lies. In the meantime, my campaign remains laser-focused on the issues at stake in this election,” Robinson said in a statement.
Trump’s campaign and political action committees began paying Jesse Binnall’s law firms in November 2020, and they have paid nearly $6 million since.
This includes more than $823,000 paid so far this year by Trump’s Save America PAC and Make America Great Again PAC, which used to be his previous presidential campaign, according to campaign records.
Trump praises Sen. Manchin for not endorsing Harris
Former President Donald Trump is celebrating the decision from Independent Sen. Joe Manchin not to endorse Harris over her comments on considering eliminating the filibuster.
Manchin has not said whether or not he will endorse Trump.
“Congratulations to Senator Joe Manchin for not endorsing Radical Kamala Harris because of her DEATH WISH for the Filibuster and the Rule of Law,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.
-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soo Rin Kim and Kelsey Walsh
Trump, in Georgia, hits on economy, immigration and more
In remarks in battleground Georgia focused on the economy and the tax code, Trump said dealing with immigration is first step in his economic plan.
In Savannah, Trump again said migrants with legal protected status in Springfield, Ohio, need to be deported and repeated his discriminatory and false argument that undocumented immigrants were stealing jobs from Black and Hispanic communities. He went on to call on local officials to “move the people back to the country from which they came.”
Trump spent much of his speech focused on increasing domestic production by tariffing other countries, telling Georgians they soon would be “stealing” jobs from other countries.
“Vote for Trump, and you will see a mass exodus of manufacturing from China to Pennsylvania, from Korea to North Carolina, from Germany to right here in Georgia, they’re going to come to Georgia, from Germany and a lot of other places,” he claimed.
“I’m outlining today, not only will we stop our businesses from leaving for foreign lands, but under my leadership, we’re going to take other countries’ jobs. Did you ever hear that expression before? Have you ever heard that? ‘We’re going to take other countries’ jobs.’ It’s never been stated before. We’re going to take their factories,” Trump claimed.
The former president also touched on Ukraine, just hours after President Joe Biden urged world leaders gathered at the United Nations General Assembly to never “waver” in support for Ukraine.
“I think that we’re stuck in that war unless I’m president. I’ll get it done. I’ll get it negotiated,” Trump claimed — a campaign pledge he often repeats but offers no specifics on how to accomplish.
Trump then seemingly praised Russia.
“That’s what they do, is they fight wars,” he said. “As somebody told me the other day, they beat Hitler, they beat Napoleon. That’s what they do. They fight and it’s not pleasant.”
ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soorin Kim and Kelsey Walsh
Nebraska governor won’t call special session to change electoral votes system
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen released a statement Tuesday confirming he has “no plans” to call a special session before the November general election — meaning that the Republican-led effort to change the state electoral college to winner-take-all is tabled, for now.
“My team and I have worked relentlessly to secure a filibuster-proof 33-vote majority to get winner-take-all passed before the November election,” Pillen said. “Given everything at stake for Nebraska and our country, we have left every inch on the field to get this done.”
“Unfortunately, we could not persuade 33 state senators,” he added.
Pillen specifically cited opposition from state Sen. Mike McDonnell, who on Monday said he would not support such a change before the 2024 election.
The switch would have likely benefitted Trump and made the electoral map more difficult for Harris.
-ABC News’ Brittany Shepherd and Oren Oppenheim
Trump attacks Harris’ plan to visit the border
Trump is now weighing in on Harris’ plans to visit the southern border this Friday in Arizona, labelling the visit as “political” and accusing her of attempting to “con the public” of her border record.
“After almost four years, Border Czar Kamala Harris has decided, for political reasons, that it’s time for her to go to our broken Southern Border. What a disgrace that she waited so long,” Trump wrote on his social media, repeating his disparaging rhetoric on migrants.
While Harris has been to the southern border, the trip marks her first visit since lauched her campaign at the end of July.
Trump has made immigration central to his 2024 campaign, pledging mass deportations and a border shutdown among other hard-line policies. He visited the border last month, the same day Harris formally accepted the Democratic nomination for president.
ABC News’ Soorin Kim, Lalee Ibssa and Kelsey Walsh
Harris planning a visit to southern border this week: Source
Vice President Harris is planning to visit the southern border during her visit to Arizona on Friday, according to a source familiar.
This would be Harris’ first visit to the southern border since she jumped to the top of the ticket at the end of July.
Immigration has been a big issue in the 2024 race, with Donald Trump and Republicans inaccurately calling Harris the “border czar” and blaming her for the border crisis. Harris, in turn, argues that Trump and Republicans are at fault for killing the bipartisan border bill earlier this year.
Harris has overseen the Biden administration’s efforts to address the root causes of migration as vice president, and visited the border in 2021, after she came under fire for not having done so.
Trump expected to return to Butler for a rally on Oct. 5: Sources
Trump is expected to return to Butler, Pennsylvania, the city of his first assassination attempt, next Saturday for a rally, according to multiple sources familiar with his plans.
The rally is scheduled for Oct. 5.
Trump has long promised to return to Butler to honor the victims who died at his July rally.
“I WILL BE GOING BACK TO BUTLER, PENNSYLVANIA, FOR A BIG AND BEAUTIFUL RALLY, HONORING THE SOUL OF OUR BELOVED FIREFIGHTING HERO, COREY, AND THOSE BRAVE PATRIOTS INJURED TWO WEEKS AGO. WHAT A DAY IT WILL BE — FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT! STAY TUNED FOR DETAILS,” Trump wrote on his social media platform in July.
NBC News was first to report the news.
ABC News’ Katherine Faulders, Lalee Ibssa, Kesley Walsh and Soorin Kim
Harris won’t attend the Al Smith dinner, a presidential campaign staple
Vice President Harris will not attend the Al Smith dinner next month in New York, breaking with tradition of major party nominees sharing laughs at the benefit dinner, and will instead be on the campaign trail, a campaign official confirmed to ABC News.
“She is going to be campaigning in a battleground state that day, and the campaign wants to maximize her time in the battlegrounds this close to the election,” the official said.
The dinner, which benefits Catholic Charities, is scheduled for Oct. 17. It has become a traditional stop on the presidential campaign trail, with both the Republican and Democratic nominees attending and delivering remarks full of roasts. In recent years, both nominees attended the gala, including in 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020. (The latter was virtual because of the COVID-19 pandemic.)
The official also added that Harris’ team informed the dinner’s organizers she would be absent, but was willing to attend in a later year as president.
ABC News’ Fritz Farrow, Gabrielle Abdul-Hakim and Will McDuffie
Melania Trump to sit for her 1st interview of 2024 election cycle
Former first lady Melania Trump will sit down for her first interview of the 2024 election cycle with Fox News’ Ainsley Earhardt as she continues to promote her new book.
The interview is set to air on Thursday, Fox announced on Monday.
While Melania Trump has remained relatively quiet this campaign cycle, mainly appearing with the former president at closed-door events, she has been more active online recently as she launches her forthcoming memoir, “Melania.”
Her book is scheduled to be released on Oct. 8. Her website describes it in part as “the powerful and inspiring story of a woman who has defined personal excellence, overcome adversity, and carved her own path.”
ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soorin Kim and Kelsey Walsh
Trump again says it’s too late for another debate amid challenges from Harris
Trump is again ruling out another debate against Harris, arguing it would be “a very bad thing” for the country.
“Well, I’ve already done two debates, and they, you know, we’re good, but to do a third one, everybody’s voting now, and it’s very late to be doing a third debate,” Trump told Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin in a phone conversation that aired Monday morning.
Harris said over the weekend she accepted an offer from CNN for a debate on Oct. 23.
Her team has also noted that there have been presidential debates in years past in the final weeks before Election Day.
“The final 2020 debate was October 22,” the Harris campaign wrote on X. “The proposed CNN debate is October 23.”
Trump also debated Hillary Clinton for a third time around the same timeframe: Oct. 19, 2016.
Trump slightly leads in Arizona, about even in North Carolina: Polls
A set of New York Times/Siena College polls found Trump slightly leads Harris in Arizona and they are about evenly matched in North Carolina.
Among likely voters in Arizona, Trump leads Harris 50% to 45% in a head-to-head matchup. In a six-way matchup with other candidates, Trump still leads Harris 48% to 43%.
In North Carolina, Trump also leads Harris among likely voters 49% to 47%. He also leads by 2 percentage points in a six-way matchup. The lead, however, is within the poll’s margin of error.
Arizona and North Carolina are considered crucial battlegrounds this election, along with Georgia. According to 538’s polling average, Trump is ahead slightly in each of the three Sun Belt states.
(WASHINGTON) — From the June 28 debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump to the Oct. 1 vice presidential debate of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Ohio Sen. JD Vance, at least 134 people were killed in 148 mass shootings across the United States, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
But during those roughly three months and since, the issue of gun violence prevention, according to some advocates, has been overshadowed by a flurry of hot-button campaign topics: The state of the economy, abortion rights, wars raging in the Middle East and Ukraine, two assassination attempts on Trump and the shifting political landscape in which Vice President Kamala Harris succeeded Biden as the Democratic nominee.
“Gun violence is still one of the most important issues facing our country. We still have an ongoing epidemic,” said Nicole Hockley, the CEO of Sandy Hook Promise — a gun violence prevention group she co-founded following the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, that left 20 children, including her son, and six adult staff members dead.
In an interview this week with ABC News, Hockley cited a Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions report that said for three straight years gun violence has been the leading cause of death in the United States for adolescents under the age of 19.
In an ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll released in August, gun violence was ranked eighth in importance among voters after the economy, inflation, health care, protecting democracy, crime and safety, immigration and the Supreme Court.
According to a 2023 Pew Research Center survey, 61% of Americans say it’s too easy to legally obtain a gun in this country and 58% believe U.S. gun-control laws should be stricter.
“I do appreciate that there are many other large issues and hot topics like the economy, like abortion, like foreign wars that are of interest to voters as well,” said Hockley, whose nonpartisan group does not endorse candidates nor donate to campaigns.
She added, “Perhaps there is an assumption, rightly or wrongly, that everyone already knows what each candidate’s opinion is and what they are likely to do in terms of gun violence prevention, whereas they might not be as clear on things like policies around the economy.”
Debates over gun violence During the three national debates in the presidential campaign, the subject of gun violence prevention appears to have received less discussion compared to the other contentious topics, some advocates said.
In the Sept. 10 debate between Harris and Trump, hosted by ABC News, gun violence came up when Trump — who was shot in the ear during a July 13 assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, that left one campaign rallygoer dead and two others wounded — alleged, “She wants to confiscate your guns.”
The accusation prompted Harris, who oversees the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, to respond, “Tim Walz and I are both gun owners. We’re not taking anybody’s guns away. So stop with the continuous lying about this stuff.”
Harris, the former California Attorney General, also said, “I’m the only person on this stage who has prosecuted transnational criminal organizations for the trafficking of guns, drugs and human beings.”
Ten days after debating Trump, Harris reiterated that she is a gun owner during a televised sit-down interview with Oprah Winfrey, adding, “If somebody breaks in my house, they’re getting shot.”
The most extensive conversation on guns during the debates came during the vice presidential debate when Walz touted his record in Minnesota on combating gun violence, saying his administration had passed an assault weapons ban and enhanced red-flag gun laws to keep weapons out of the hands of people poised to harm themselves or others.
“These are reasonable things that we can do to make a difference,” Walz said about gun violence prevention during the debate.
Vance and Trump oppose most gun-control laws, including an assault weapons ban and national red-flag laws proposed by Harris. The National Rifle Association has endorsed the Trump-Vance ticket.
“Now, more than ever, freedom and liberty need courageous and virtuous defenders,” Doug Hamlin, executive vice president and CEO of the NRA, said in a statement in July. “President Trump and Senator Vance have the guts and the grit to stand steadfast for the Second Amendment.”
During the debate, Vance said on gun violence prevention measures, “Governor Walz and I actually probably agree that we need to do better on this.”
Addressing school shootings, Vance said at the debate, “I, unfortunately, think that we have to increase security in our schools. We have to make the doors lock better. We have to make the doors stronger. We’ve got to make the windows stronger. And of course, we’ve got to increase school resource officers because the idea that we can magically wave a wand and take guns out of the hands of bad guys, it just doesn’t fit with recent experience.”
‘The lockdown generation’
Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director of Moms Demand Action, a grassroots movement of Americans fighting for public safety measures, said that despite the myriad issues in this campaign cycle, gun violence prevention still resonates with voters nationwide.
“First and foremost, I get to travel all across this country and meet with our volunteers and partners and candidates running up and down the ballot, and there are so many people that are not running away from this issue but running on it and actually winning,” Ferrell-Zabala told ABC News. “This is a priority for many folks.”
She said that from her experience, young people, who have grown up in the era of school lockdowns and active shooter drills, are particularly energized over the issue of gun violence prevention and plan to vote their conscience.
“This is a big issue. This is a top three for all voters and for young people, this is particularly hitting them because they are the lockdown generation. Many of them are survivors of gun violence themselves,” said Ferrell-Zabala, whose group has endorsed the Harris-Walz ticket.
According to the 2023 Pew Research Center survey, 88% of respondents also favored preventing mentally ill people from buying guns and 79% wanted the minimum age for buying guns raised to 21.
Ferrell-Zabala said most aspects of gun violence prevention should not be considered political, including requiring gun owners to secure their weapons to prevent them from falling into the hands of children or people intent on harming others or themselves.
“They are being used as political issues, but they are not. The majority of people, polls show time and time again, are for common sense gun laws because they know they are going to save lives in this country,” Ferrell-Zabala said. “And what you’re seeing is a product of a gun industry and extremist politicians that are trying to back this guns-everywhere culture, where guns are everywhere for anyone anytime. That’s unacceptable, frankly.”
Hockley said that many of the children who survived the Sandy Hook massacre that claimed the life of her 6-year-old son, Dylan, have now reached the age of 18 and will be voting in their first presidential election.
“I believe that they will be very much voting to stop this epidemic,” Hockley told ABC News. “I’m sure they’ll have other concerns as well, women’s rights, human rights. Gun violence prevention is also a human right, the right to live to your full potential. These students have seen the worst of what our country can offer in terms of school violence and I very much believe and hope that they will be voting that as one of their main issues.”
(WASHINGTON) Former President Donald Trump has drawn scrutiny in recent weeks for an escalation of rhetoric threatening political opponents with retribution if he’s elected to a second term. The comments have triggered alarm from some officials who served with him the first time around, such as former Chief of Staff John Kelly.
Earlier this month, Trump described Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi each as “an enemy from within.”
“These are bad people. We have a lot of bad people. But when you look at ‘Shifty Schiff’ and some of the others, yeah, they are, to me, the enemy from within,” Trump told Fox News on Oct. 20.
While Trump’s comments prompted a renewed focus on the issue of democracy, a Gallup poll earlier this month showed that the economy still ranks as the top issue of concern for voters.
However, a strong separation between issues of democracy and the economy is misguided, some academics who study the tie between political systems and economic performance told ABC News.
“People interested in making a large investment will be less likely to do it unless they can curry favor with the president himself,” Thomas Pepinsky, a professor of government and public policy at Cornell University, told ABC News. “There will be some who stand to benefit but the average American will lose.”
If Trump makes good on his threats to crack down on political adversaries, media outlets and some government agencies, he risks spooking investors, saddling businesses with uncertainty and driving away workers, experts said. That in turn could diminish economic growth, increase the likelihood of an economic downturn and harm the finances of everyday people, they added.
The impact may prove to be minimal in the short term but could grow substantially over time, some experts said, while also acknowledging the difficulty of predicting to what extent existing checks and balances might constrain Trump.
“If Trump suddenly threatens the rule of law, you won’t have an immediate recession,” Daron Acemoglu, a professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and co-author of the book “Why Nations Fail,” told ABC News.
“But you get a huge amount of uncertainty and that has economic implications,” Acemoglu added. “If companies favored by Trump can expect to get a special deal and others can’t compete, that’s a slippery slope.”
Stephen Moore, an economic advisor to Trump, rebuked the notion that democracy would weaken during a second Trump term. Instead, he added, the economy would perform well, just as it did over Trump’s first term.
“I’d be much more prone to look at his track record in office than speculation about how he might undermine democracy,” Moore told ABC News. “We had a booming economy.”
“If Trump wins, I think the markets will react in a very, very positive way,” Moore added.
In response to ABC News’ request for comment, the Trump campaign shared a statement from a representative of the Republican National Committee (RNC).
“Kamala is a continuation of Biden’s failed economic policies, and they’ve left our economy in shambles. Kamala Harris broke America’s economy, our national security, and world peace, but President Trump will fix it through his America first policies,” RNC spokesperson Anna Kelly told ABC News.
Trump has threatened to use the Department of Justice to prosecute political opponents, including Vice President Kamala Harris. Harris “should be impeached and prosecuted,” Trump said at a rally last month. He also has suggested rescinding the licenses of media outlets that he dislikes.
Trump continues to make false claims in denying the outcome of the 2020 presidential election and has repeatedly attempted to sow doubt regarding the validity of the impending one, should he lose.
The potential erosion of government and civic institutions under a Trump presidency could cause investors to second-guess whether they want to do business in the U.S., the experts said. Trump has hinted at taking away some of the independence of the Federal Reserve, which could introduce further uncertainty surrounding the nation’s interest rates. Meanwhile, the experts added, Trump may treat more favorably companies that stay in good standing with his administration, putting other entities at a disadvantage even if they’re more competitive.
“It would simply create a huge amount of uncertainty about which rules apply and who they apply to,” Steven Hahn, a professor of history at New York University and author of “Illiberal America: A History,” told ABC News. “It would just have enormous consequences for the economic life of the country.”
Uncertain U.S. politics have already negatively affected the nation’s financial foundation, according to some financial measures. Last year, the rating agency Fitch Ratings downgraded U.S. credit for the second time in the nation’s history, citing the ballooning U.S. debt load and a weakening of governance, as well as the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, as factors in their decision.
After studying more than 50 populist leaders going back to 1900, German researchers Manuel Funke, Moritz Schularick and Christoph Trebesch found that after a populist leader took office, a nation’s economy grew at a 10% slower pace over the ensuing 15 years than it would have otherwise, according to an article published in the American Economic Review in December.
A separate study in 2019 found that democratization boosted a nation’s gross domestic product by about 20% over the long run, according to researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Columbia University, among others.
“The evidence is pretty clear,” Vanessa Williamson, a senior fellow in governance studies at the left-leaning Brookings Institution, told ABC News. “Democracy is pretty good for an economy, and authoritarian regimes do worse than they otherwise would.”
There are exceptions, however. India, one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, has seen its ranking in the global Democracy Index fall since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office in 2014. The Chinese economy grew rapidly over the past three decades under authoritarian rule, though that economic expansion has slowed in recent years.
“Sometimes undemocratic countries have had amazing growth, but those examples are rare,” Williamson said.
What’s unknown, of course, is whether Trump, if elected, would implement his proposed agenda. Also unknown is to what extent such actions could or would be resisted by others, including Congress, the courts and other institutions.
“Even if Republicans win Congress, they won’t have 60 votes in the Senate,” Moore, the economic advisor to Trump, said, pointing to the threshold of support necessary to overcome a Senate filibuster.
Some experts also acknowledged that the economy performed fairly well under Trump during his first term, despite his administration taking steps that those experts perceived as testing democratic norms.
“Trump’s first term was chaotic, disorganized and bad for some institutions, but I fear his second term would be worse,” Acemoglu said.
In theory, the market itself could act as a check on Trump’s plans, experts said. A negative market response helped unseat then-UK Prime Minister Liz Truss In 2022.
Fiscal plans put forward by Truss caused the nation’s currency to plummet in value while bond yields spiked. Within weeks of her taking office, and amid heated criticism from both her opponents and members of her own party, Truss resigned.
A dramatic market reaction could limit Trump’s plans, but he could instead prioritize the consolidation of power, in turn diminishing the impact of a financial response, Pepinsky said.
“For most politicians, they change course if the market signals to them that something won’t work,” Pepinsky added. “Trump isn’t a normal politician.”
