Donald Trump’s first presidential debate confirmed he has no idea what he’s talking about

http://www.vox.com/2016/9/26/13066698/trump-debate-trade-fact-check?utm_campaign=mattyglesias&utm_content=chorus&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

Updated by Matthew Yglesias
@mattyglesias matt@vox.com
Sep 26, 2016, 11:43p

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You would see, in other words, that the Democrats had nominated an experienced politician — it’s what you do.

The other party, by contrast, seems to have done something weird. Their nominee, Donald Trump, seems erratic — peevish, visibly annoyed at being referred to by his first name, lashing out at Rosie O’Donnell for some reason — and mired in controversy. Accused of practicing racial discrimination in his businesses, he says being sued by the federal government is “one of those things” and even though he paid-up there was “no admission of guilt.” Pressed to release his federal income tax returns he said he can’t because he’s being audited, which really just seems like a confirmation that his returns would be interesting and worth seeing.

But beyond the personal controversies, he rather clearly has no idea what he’s talking about.

Trump doesn’t know much about the economy
Trump explained that he talks about how rich he is “not in a bragadocious way” but because “it's time that this country has somebody running the country who has an idea about money.”

And yet from his very first statement in the debate, Trump revealed a frankly bizarre level of ignorance about economic policy.

Literally the first thing Trump said after thanking the moderator was “our jobs are fleeing the country” when, in fact, employment has been steadily increasing for years.

Three sentences later he said the Chinese “are devaluing their currency and there's nobody in our government to fight them” when, in fact, the Chinese are trying to prop up the value of their currency in the face of a massive investor exodus from Chinese real estate.

He also said the Chinese “are using our country as a piggy bank to rebuild China” which isn’t even how piggy banks work, much less the US-Chinese economic relationship.

He said that Mexico is feasting on American manufacturing and “building the bigger plants in the world” when, in fact, Tesla is currently building the biggest factory in the world right in California. The existing biggest factory in the world is also in the United States, where they build Boeing jumbo jets. Number three is a Mitsubishi plant located in Illinois.

One could continue with the factual specifics here, but the overarching theme is pretty clear: The Republicans nominated someone who doesn’t know anything about his signature issue. He lambasted Clinton for her involvement in NAFTA, which he said had devastated American manufacturing, but US manufacturing output has risen about fifty percent since NAFTA passed. And while it’s not true that the world’s biggest factories are opening in Mexico, it is absolutely true that both the Boeing factory and the Mitsubishi factory depend critically on international trade for their viability.

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Go read the whole thing. Trump exposed himself tonight in front of 100 million people. He very obviously has NO IDEA what he's talking about. He's a bullshit artist, and his bullshit stunk tonight. Sometimes he can spin the words with panache and a bit of style. Tonight, he was just awful.

He seemed both naked and hollow. He acted petulant and snippy. You could see right through the bullshit to the sniffling man-child who was wayyy out of his league. Hillary was well-prepared to seize the initiative from the start. She led him around by the nose and had him over-reacting to every perceived sleight.

I'm doing the happy dance over here. Go Hillary!