Donald Trump has been President for just over 100 days at the time I’m writing this. If you listen to him it’s been a roaring success- egg prices are down 87%, dozens of nations are begging for trade deals with the US, we’ve shipped thousands of violent criminals out, and we are cutting wasteful government spending.
But if you live here in the REAL world things are a lot different.
Egg prices have not gone down at all- they continue to rise, albeit at a slightly slower rate than in the previous couple months. There have been zero new trade agreements reached with the US. In fact, the exact opposite is true. The European Union and China are actively working on and/ or have already reached trade deals with other countries to lessen the amount of trade they have to do with the United States. Countless people have been “deported” without due process, including US citizens, which is a clear violation of both the Fifth and Fourteenth amendments of the Constitution. The DOGE cuts are being done without any actual research being done first, and have famously cut programs Trump himself signed into law in his first term and/ or had to be completely reversed once someone(s) actually took the time to see what they were cutting.
Even if you find a way to see past all that, there are indicators that things are going sideways that cannot be explained away. One big one not enough people are talking about is tourism. There has been a HUGE drop in foreign visitors and reservations/ booking for upcoming visits to the US since late January.
It’s easy to just say that’s fine and we don’t need those dirty foreigners in our country anyway. But, we do.
Popular tourist destinations across the US are seeing as much as a 30% drop in bookings directly linked to the lack of non-US visitors this year vs. previous years. Some states are being hit harder than others- currently Florida, California, New York and Texas are seeing the biggest hits. But in the long term it impacts all Americans.
Even a drop of far less than 30% in revenue for hotels, restaurants and bars, (many of who are Mom and Pop businesses), and all the other businesses in the tourism industry is REALLY bad for the economy. It means less tax revenue, but it also leads to layout off/ hiring fewer workers. It means all the companies that support these industries- such as food and beverage and textiles- will have less revenue and need fewer workers. It means industries like logistics and shipping will have less revenue and need fewer workers. And the cycle continues.
Canada and Mexico are seeing record increases in bookings this year from all over the world, as well as significant increases in folks choosing to vacation within their own country instead. American’s loss is their gain.
We brough this crazy on ourselves and we have the power to turn it around for 2026 (it’s already too late to save 2025). But will we? That remains to be seen.