JD Vance has been making the rounds asking the country to give the Trump White House and congressional Republicans “another chance.” I cannot fathom the extent of his hutzpah, but there he is on television, pleading with voters for more time to enact his plans and plots on the nation.
“Another chance” is a tidy little phrase. I think he truly believes he comes across as humble and earnest. As if the events since Inauguration Day 2025 were a minor misunderstanding rather than a full‑scale economic disaster and geopolitical madness. The trouble for Vance, as he peddles that message, is that the voters are much more aware of what has happened with Trump and Company holding the steering wheel of government. The damage isn’t theoretical. They are measurable, costly, and were entirely self‑inflicted.
So many people took Trump’s 2024 threats to impose worldwide tariffs seriously, and spoke out agins tthem in the lection. Those tariffs have proven to be the most expensive acts of political theater in modern economic history. Tariffs were sold as patriotic self‑reliance, a way to stand up to China and rebuild American manufacturing. In practice, they functioned as a nationwide tax increase that hit consumers directly. Prices rose across everyday goods, inflation ticked upward, and households absorbed hundreds of dollars in added costs each year. The poorest families were hit hardest.
Even after the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s emergency tariff authority, the administration responded not with restraint but with new legal maneuvers to keep tariffs flowing, deepening the uncertainty businesses were already struggling to navigate.
Trump and his congressional brethren ballooned the deficit with tax cuts aimed at the wealthy while Medicaid cuts, the undermining of rural hospitals, and cuts to government programs that impact the lives of average Americans were enacted. So, when Vance asks for “another chance,” he is asking voters to forget that the last chance ended with more inequality in the tax structure, a bizarre tariff policy and a nation left with a fiscal hangover that will take years to unwind.
Foreign policy didn’t fare any better under this administration. The totally avoidable war with Iran was like pouring gasoline on inflation and setting it ablaze. The Strait of Hormuz that had been open was closed. Iran became stronger and viewed itself as more a player in the Middle East then its previous economic position would have placed it. The war brought higer energy costs, more expensive shipping costs, and farmers were slammed with higher diesel prices and fertilizer woes. The Middle East is far more destabilized today than when Trump and his GOP Congress took power in 2025.
So, my response to Vance is short and precise.
Governing is not a do‑over sport. You don’t get to break the economy, ignite a conflict, raise household costs, and then ask voters to pretend it didn’t happen. The nation cannot afford another round of economic roulette. The last chance was more than enough.
Go back and sit on your couch, J.D.
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