Donald J. Trump speaks to Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines during a visit to Osan Air Base, Republic of Korea June 30. (U.S. Army Photo by Staff Sgt. Cody Harding, 2ID/RUCD Public Affairs)
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By Joshua Scheer
In a nationally televised primetime address from the White House, President Donald Trump spent much of the speech defending his economic record and touting the strength of the U.S. economy — claims that were sharply questioned by independent analysts. On Democracy Now!, senior economist Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research described Trump’s portrayal of the economy as “utterly divorced from reality,” noting that recent labor data show rising unemployment even as the president insisted the nation is thriving under his leadership. Baker also pointed out that Trump inherited a strong economy and that many of his assertions about growth and affordability don’t align with the latest statistics. The interview offers a critical lens on the president’s claims and highlights widespread skepticism about the speech’s accuracy from economists and voters alike.
Trump paired his economic boasts with attacks on immigrants, declaring, “Our nation is strong. America is respected, and our country is back—stronger than ever before. We’re poised for an economic boom the likes of which the world has never seen.”
In the same breath, he blamed immigrants for a range of social and economic problems, claiming that “illegal aliens stole American jobs and flooded emergency rooms, getting free healthcare and education paid for by you—the American taxpayer,” and alleging, without evidence, that they have driven up law enforcement costs “by numbers so high that they are not even to be mentioned.”
Again, the president is living in fantasyland—or more like “fascist land”—blaming the very people who make America thrive. Immigrants and their children are driving American business: 46% of top companies—230 in total—were founded by them. This year, 10 new companies joined the New American Fortune 500, and half of those were immigrant-founded.
While some anti-immigrant groups continue debating potential effects on wages and public services, the facts are clear: immigrants generated about $1.7 trillion in economic activity in 2023 and paid roughly $652 billion in taxes, while nearly one in five U.S. workers is foreign-born. They also fuel entrepreneurship and high-tech innovation, and most economists agree that immigration expands the labor force, boosts productivity, and strengthens long-term economic growth.
With our president’s obsession with immigrants — the very people who have long helped make this country great — he is once again targeting immigrant communities, now including those who are already became U.S. citizens. Here’s Oh That’s Rich breaking it down. What this really reveals is the defining hallmark of the current Washington regime: politics driven by fear — fear of the unknown, and fear deliberately manufactured to divide.
At the same time the Trump administration is cutting experienced immigration judges — a move that sows chaos and plays into a mission of fear — new investigations reveal appalling conditions in U.S. detention centers. Amnesty International’s latest report found that Florida’s Everglades Detention Facility, nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz,” and the Krome processing center are holding people in cruel, inhuman, and degrading conditions, with practices that in some instances may amount to torture under international law. With Amnesty International reporting cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment at two immigration detention centers in Florida: The Everglades Detention Facility (‘Alligator Alcatraz’) and the Krome North Service Processing Center (Krome).”
Among the noteworthy findings “Alligator Alcatraz” operates outside federal oversight, without the basic tracking systems used in ICE facilities. The absence of registration or tracking mechanisms for those detained at Alligator Alcatraz facilitates incommunicado detention and constitutes enforced disappearances when the whereabouts of a person being detained there is denied to their family, and they are not allowed to contact their lawyer.
For those living in Florida, take note: today after an investigation into the facility and promises of federal reimbursement, court documents obtained by WPTV Florida reveal that no federal money has actually been disbursed to the state for the controversial Everglades immigration detention center, contradicting Gov. Ron DeSantis’ assurances to taxpayers. If humanitarian concerns alone weren’t enough to consider closing the facility, perhaps this financial reality might finally motivate action.
Also today in a striking Democracy Now! interview, former immigration judge Tania Nemer — one of nearly 100 immigration court judges fired or pushed out since President Trump returned to office — breaks her silence on her abrupt dismissal and her lawsuit against the federal government. Nemer, who was removed from the bench in the middle of a hearing without explanation, argues her firing was discriminatory and part of a broader purge of experienced judges that threatens due process in an already overwhelmed immigration court system. Her attorney highlights the extraordinary legal position taken by the Justice Department, which dismissed her discrimination complaint by citing presidential authority under Article II of the Constitution, raising serious questions about civil rights protections for federal employees.
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