According to polls, American voters favor Donald Trump over President Biden on the economy, crime, immigration and somehow even on defending democracy. That’s a truly amazing testament to the power of rightwing disinformation. The facts paint a very different picture.

On the economy, Trump cut taxes for the rich, leaving a revenue hole that went unfilled under his administration. His many promises about infrastructure, energy production and manufacturing came to nothing.

Under Biden, deficit spending is half what it was during Trump’s term even though America is regaining its technical lead on China, crushing unemployment, and producing petroleum at a record rate. Yes, prices are higher, but that’s true everywhere and America is handling it far better than the rest of the developed world. Meanwhile, Trump’s stubbornly uninformed tariff plans are projected to destroy over 600,000 jobs and cost the average family $1,700 extra per year if he’s elected.

Crime? Violent crime is 4% lower under Biden than when Trump left office and it has fallen at even greater rates in the big cities he condemns as hellholes. And despite all he says migrants are significantly less likely than native Americans to commit violent crimes.

Immigration? Trump’s Republicans have repeatedly spiked any workable immigration program, and at his bidding they voted down a bipartisan proposal to reduce illegal immigration after first voting FOR it.

Democracy? Trump quotes Hitler (who “had a lot of good ideas”), sucks up to despots like Putin and Viktor Orbán and promises to replace nonpartisan federal workers and judges with loyalists who will let him do whatever he wants.

As rightwing outlets like to urge, do your own research. All these facts and figures are freely available from reliable sources. Don’t let lying “influencers” keep you from seeing things as they really are.

Joe Glaser

Bowling Green