Pulitzer Prize Winner Calls Trump’s New Budget ‘Happy Go Magic Land’

“His budget is what my children, now grown, call ‘happy go magic land’. It assumes huge economic growth when the American economy's growth rate has slowed each year since Trump assumed office,” David Cay Johnston told Tasnim.

David Cay Johnston is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter who has broken many major stories over the past 50 years about corruption, spying, and official misconduct. He has known Donald Trump for 29 years, revealed in 1990 that he was no billionaire and in 2016 wrote the worldwide bestseller ‘The Making of Donald Trump’, which documents Trump’s decades of deep entanglements with mobsters, a major drug trafficker, and various swindlers.

Following is the full text of the interview.

Tasnim: Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump released his 2021 budget proposal. Experts believe that it would weaken the US economy and undermine people’s ability to grow and prosper over time and If enacted, would be an economic calamity. What do you think?

Johnston: His budget is what my children, now grown, call “happy go magic land.” It assumes huge economic growth when the American economy's growth rate has slowed each year since Trump assumed office.

The proposed 2021 budget is also dead on arrival as Congress will never enact his proposals. Still, the proposals are valuable because they put the lie to Trump’s inaugural speech claim that he is the champion of the Forgotten Man and will act only in the interests of ordinary Americans. His conduct shows he often acts directly contrary to their interests.

Tasnim: Trump's proposal calls for $4.8 trillion in federal spending for fiscal 2021, and would include a modest increase in defense spending and a substantive boost in funding for artificial intelligence. The US president's budget also provides an outline over the next 10 years that would reduce federal outlays and save the government $4.4 trillion. What are your thoughts on this?

Johnston: Just not going to happen. The American military budget is already bloated and much of it is devoted to sustaining World War II era concepts such as aircraft carriers rather than the low-cost and modern forms of harrying and warfare — in cyberspace, as Russia is doing quite effectively with its military cyberspace officers interference in internal American politics.

Tasnim: Trump's budget slashes funding for education, health care, research, and development. What is the main reason behind this?

Johnston: In the classic meaning of the world, Donald Trump is an idiot. That word means someone concerned only with himself, as the “id” implies. In ancient Athens, the elites were expected to contribute to politics and culture and those who did not were idiots. Fits Donald to a T.

Tasnim: According to CNN, making matters worse, Trump's budget would worsen economic disparities by race. He proposes cuts to nutrition assistance when black families are more than twice as likely to be food-insecure than white families. He proposes cuts to after-school programs, to student aid and to federal funding for homeless students, all of which will fall disproportionately on young black people. Black Americans already face systemic barriers to economic advancement, barriers that both diminish individual opportunity and hurt the economy overall. What are your thoughts on this?

Johnston: Donald Trump has always had contempt for the poor. As a candidate, he bragged in Las Vegas that “I love the poorly educated.” The reason is that he can deceive them. Luckily for America and the world, he is not effective in implementing many of his policies.