The Erick Erickson Show

S15 EP132: Hour 2 - Trump Policies Are Hurting the Economy

July 21, 2026·37 min
Episode Description from the Publisher

Erick connects lost American institutional knowledge (nobody can build an IMAX 70 millimeter projector anymore, and Plant Vogtle had to reteach the country how to build a nuclear power plant) to the bigger story: China is building 39 nuclear reactors and 100 coal plants while the United States builds zero. He argues Joe Biden wrecked the economy with modern monetary theory over Larry Summers's warnings, and Donald Trump wrecked it further by resurrecting failed 1950s tariff policy on aluminum, steel, and lumber. Plus Dan McLaughlin on Karl Marx versus Frederick Douglass, Nate Silver's data on who the Democratic Socialists really are, and why China funds the AstroTurf groups fighting AI data centers. TOPICS The largest IMAX screen in America is in Pooler, Georgia, and why only 25 IMAX theaters exist: the engineers who built the 70 millimeter projectors retired or died Plant Vogtle, Westinghouse's bankruptcy, and why Erick Erickson says the nation owes Georgia Power and the Georgia Public Service Commission a debt of gratitude Joe Biden, Larry Summers, modern monetary theory, and how the COVID bailout broke the economy Donald Trump's aluminum tariff proclamation, J.D. Vance, the isolationists, and the C.S. Lewis "Screwtape Letters" warning about idealizing the past China building 39 nuclear reactors and 100 coal plants while the United States builds none, plus the $1.65 trillion in hidden data center debt at Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and Oracle Base load power explained, the Texas ice storm failure, and why Georgia, Kansas, Idaho, and Wyoming are seeing rates fall Dan McLaughlin on Karl Marx versus Frederick Douglass, and Nate Silver's data on affluent, educated, resentful Democratic Socialists Callers Jim and John on policing our own side, Christine O'Donnell, Antifa, and the Patriot Front, plus Van Jones calling the far left regressive

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