By Ben Meiselas
It’s been a brutal Thursday for Donald Trump, and for the American people living under his failed economic agenda. The latest private jobs data confirms what so many families already feel: this economy is falling apart. October saw the highest number of corporate layoffs since 2003, with more than 153,000 jobs slashed last month alone. That brings total announced cuts this year to over one million, an economic bloodbath not seen since the pandemic or the Great Recession. And to repeat: this is private jobs data, because Trump’s administration has stopped reporting, blaming the shutdown.
What’s driving this collapse? Trump’s reckless trade wars, erratic policies, and self-serving economic stunts have gutted confidence across industries. Construction and manufacturing are in recession. The Trump tariffs have driven up material costs, slowed projects, and priced out workers. Homebuilders are offering desperate mortgage discounts, yet new homes sit unsold. For young Americans, the outlook is even worse. The unemployment rate for those aged 20 to 24 has climbed to 9.2%, its highest level in nearly a decade.
Meanwhile, Trump’s propaganda machine is telling a different story. From his desk near the Oval Office—now reportedly adorned with golden signs to remind him where he is—Trump is insisting that everything is fine. He claims Thanksgiving dinner will be “25% cheaper” this year, citing a cherry-picked Walmart list that quietly replaced name-brand items with generics and reduced the meal size from twenty-one dishes to fifteen. It’s the kind of absurd lie that defines his presidency: confident, cruel, and completely detached from reality.
As millions struggle to put food on the table, Trump’s allies are spinning fairytales about “jet fuel for the economy” and “record wage growth.” The truth is that prices are rising, jobs are disappearing, and the wealthy few are hoarding the gains. Economists call it a “K-shaped recovery,” where billionaires and corporations climb upward while everyone else plummets. For working Americans, it’s not a recovery at all. It’s a controlled demolition of what’s left of the middle class.
Adding insult to injury, the federal government is quietly pumping tens of billions into big banks to prevent a liquidity crisis, bailing out Wall Street yet again while starving programs like SNAP and healthcare. Even as Trump doles out favors to AI companies and foreign governments, families are being told to tighten their belts. It’s the same corrupt trickle-down ideology that’s failed America for forty years, now supercharged by authoritarian greed.
And beyond the numbers lies the human cost. Immigration raids have paralyzed construction sites and terrorized communities. Families are being torn apart in broad daylight. In Los Angeles, ICE agents reportedly kidnapped a child during a raid—another symbol of how cruelty has replaced policy under Trump’s command.
The chaos has even begun to fracture Trump’s own movement. Figures like Marjorie Taylor Greene are lashing out at his administration’s bizarre decisions to bail out foreign farmers and hide evidence of criminal abuse. But the blame is clear. Trump built this system, one that rewards the powerful and punishes the vulnerable, and now it’s collapsing under its own corruption.
The data doesn’t lie. Inflation is climbing, layoffs are accelerating, and hope is fading for millions of Americans who believed the promise of “America First.” What Trump has delivered instead is an America in decline, where billionaires thrive, workers suffer, and cruelty is the only constant.
No amount of gold-plated signage outside the Oval Office can disguise what’s happening inside. There’s an administration unraveling, an economy crumbling, and a nation paying the price for one man’s ego.
Watch my latest report above. Like and share this post. And be sure to catch up on today’s MeidasTouch Podcast with me and my brothers. It’s on all the various podcast platforms out there, like Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Tonight I’ll also be going live with my brothers for the latest episode of the MeidasTouch Podcast at 8p ET/5p PT. Check our YouTube channel throughout the day for more updates.
