Chief Investment Strategist, The Freeport Society
It’s happening.
Tuesday night in Philadelphia, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will duke it out in their first and likely only public debate before the election.
I’m not expecting it to be the second coming of the classic Lincoln-Douglas debates.
I’m not really expecting coherent thought, for that matter.
And I’m certainly not expecting either candidate to present a viable plan to slow down the multiple trillions of dollars we’re adding to the national debt every year… or to rein in the Federal Reserve’s ability to print trillions of dollars on a whim… or to fix (or even postpone) the train wreck coming when the Social Security trust fund is depleted in another 13 years.
No, these are things a responsible would-be president would address.
Instead, we’ll see overly rehearsed canned answers from Kamala Harris that lack any real substance. And we’ll see barely intelligible and factually questionable bluster from Trump… a man who, despite having a degree from an Ivy League school, has the vocabulary of a very average fifth grader.
That said, while I expect more intelligent discourse on the playground at my daughter’s preschool, I do expect this debate to be better than the one we saw in June between Trump and Joe Biden. We knew it would be bad going in, which is why I invented a drinking game for it. But it was worse than anyone could have imagined. It ended Biden’s political career.
I also expect Tuesday’s debate to lead to an election shock. That’s why I’ve recorded this urgent presentation. I urge you to watch it before Tuesday, so you can be ready.
Yes, I’m cynical about the debate.
And yes, I’ll be pouring a stiff drink and watching it because I want to know what our next investment moves should be.
Asking the Right Questions
Look, I don’t have an inside track on what softball questions the interviewers will be asking. But I know they won’t ask the right questions. These are the questions I’d ask.
To Kamala Harris:
- Your administration with Joe Biden presided over the biggest inflationary surge in 40 years. Explain why on Earth we should trust you to be more competent this time around.
- Your administration also presided over what was perhaps the biggest unforced error in U.S. history – the border crisis. Yes, you presented a plan to fix it earlier this year. Why did it take you three years to take this seriously?
- So… you knew that Biden wasn’t quite all there these past few years. Who exactly has been running the country? That would be useful to know. Maybe they should be the person actually running for president?
To Donald Trump:
- Seriously bro, why do you even want to be president? You never looked like you enjoyed it much the last time you had the job. Do you just miss being on TV since the Apprentice went off the air?
- Not once during your presidency did you have a positive approval rating. Your average approval rating of 41% was the lowest of any president in the history of Gallup’s ratings. Sure, you had your fans. But most Americans – including millions who voted for you then and may be voting for you again – didn’t actually like you. They tolerated your character defects because they liked lower taxes. Has it occurred to you that maybe you’re not cut out for this job?
- Why was the President of the United States firing off rage tweets at 2:00 a.m. for the four years you were in the White House? Don’t you think that the leader of the free world might have more important things to do than get into Twitter fights with B-list celebrities? If you win the election, will you promise to put your phone down and focus on your job for at least five minutes at a time?
And to both of them…
- So, why exactly are both of you obsessed with eliminating taxes on tips? And explain to me why a waiter would get to live tax free and I don’t? Seriously, this is not a rhetorical question. For my sanity, I need to know why a Chili’s waiter gets a better tax regime than me.
- I know you’re both old enough to know what a checkbook is. Have either of you ever balanced one? And if so, why can’t you balance our nation’s budget? Your two administrations together have nearly doubled the national debt in less than eight years. May our children and our children’s children curse your names from now until the end of time for the debt hole you’ve collectively dug us into.
- Look, every president of my lifetime has failed at the job. But most of them at least had something I admired. Bill Clinton was a hell of a saxophone player, and George W. Bush was the only president who could actually get the ceremonial first pitch over the plate and not utterly emasculate himself. Barack Obama was playing respectable basketball in his late 40s. As a geriatric joke of a basketball player myself, I can respect that. How is it that you are two of the least interesting public figures in America?
I’m under no illusions that any of these questions will be asked let alone answered. That’s a shame.. Even if they were, the answers would be half truths or outright lies.
What’s more likely to happen on Tuesday night is the unfolding of a major election shock that will leave swaths of citizens unprepared. Don’t be a victim here. Take charge of protecting and growing your wealth before the next dunderhead is elected into power. I explain what you need to know and what you need to do now in this urgent presentation.
To life, liberty, and the pursuit of wealth.