Politics

Here Are The Predictions Trump Got Right About Biden

(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Mary Rooke Commentary and Analysis Writer
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Former President Donald Trump’s predictions during his 2020 presidential campaign about what would happen to the U.S. if Joe Biden took office have been eerily correct.

Trump accurately warned voters that Biden’s policies would attack free speech and the Second Amendment, cause illegal immigrants to flood the southern border, and consumers would suffer high gas prices and a failing economy.

Biden’s Attacks On The Second Amendment

Trump warned that Biden’s administration would implement a “radical left agenda,” including attacks on the First and Second amendments.

“He’s following the radical left agenda: take away your guns, destroy your Second Amendment, no religion no anything, hurt the Bible, hurt God, he’s against God, he’s against guns, he’s against energy, our kind of energy,” Trump said in August 2020.

“If Joe Biden gets in, your Second Amendment is gone. It’s gone — either obliterated to a point of being gone or gone itself,” Trump told supporters on Sep. 8, 2020, in Florida. (RELATED: The Gun Control Legislation Will Strip You Of Rights — Then ‘Bankrupt’ You To Get Them Back)

The Trump campaign also released an ad that warned Biden “openly admitted his plan to violate our Second Amendment rights.”

“To gun owners out there who say, well, a Biden administration means they’re going to come for my guns. Bingo. You’re right,” Biden said in a clip from CNN the Trump campaign used in the ad.

FactCheck.org claimed Trump’s ad was nothing more than “an out-of-context video clip” of Biden.

Biden’s remarks at Cross Hall on gun violence reignited his calls for Congress to begin restricting the Second Amendment. He also claimed the Constitution does not give Second Amendment “absolute” protection.

“The Second Amendment, like all other rights, is not absolute. It was Justice Scalia who wrote … the rights granted by the Second Amendment are ‘not unlimited.’ Not unlimited. It never has been,” Biden said.

“We need to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. And if we can’t ban assault weapons, then we should raise the age to purchase them from 18 to 21. Strengthen background checks. Enact safe storage laws and red-flag laws. Repeal the immunity that protects gun manufacturers from liability,” Biden continued.

Biden signed the first new gun control legislation in 28 years with the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act into law on June 25.

The bill includes millions of dollars in incentives for states that pass red-flag laws, expands federal background checks, increases waiting period before a sale can be approved and redefines who can register as a Federal Firearms Licensee.

Biden said the bill doesn’t go as far as his administration wanted, but “does include actions I’ve long called for that will save lives.”

Biden’s Open Border Policy:

Trump told supporters that Biden’s border policies would effectively leave the southern border wide open to illegal immigrants.

During his 2020 campaign Trump said:

“Think of that: Abolish immigration enforcement. They’re going to abolish immigration enforcement.”

“Abolish immigration detention. No more detention. You come in here illegally, no more detention.”

“Stop all deportation. So if we get a MS-13 gang member, which we’ve taken out of our country by the thousands — brought them back to Honduras, Guatemala — can’t do that anymore — El Salvador. Can’t do that anymore. Stop all deportations. So in other words, we’ll take all of these people — many of whom are in prison for rape, murder, lots of other things.”

“Expand asylum for all new illegal aliens. How about that one? All new illegal aliens, expand asylum.”

“Incentivize illegal-alien child smuggling. Give it an incentive. Because if you look at what they’re saying, that’s exactly what they do: Incentivize illegal-alien child smuggling.”

The Associated Press rated these Trump predictions as “false in almost every detail.” Still, a recent report by Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives (House GOP) shows Trump was right and the fact-checkers were wildly inaccurate.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) data shows that its agency has apprehended over 2.9 million illegal immigrants crossing the border since Biden took office, including 239,416 migrant encounters in May 2022 alone, according to the House GOP report. (RELATED: ‘Lack Of Control’: Mexico’s President Slams US Border Policies After San Antonio Tragedy)

At least 50 illegal border crossers since Oct. 2021 were identified as suspects on the terrorist watchlist, reported the House GOP.

“This is the highest in CBP’s 22-year record for monthly crossings and the second month in a row for this record high. That is up 32% from May 2021. That is a 930% increase from 2020,” the House GOP report stated.

May 2022 became the 15th straight month for CBP to apprehend over 150,000 illegal immigrants at the southern border, the House GOP reported. CBP seized over 1 million pounds of illegal drugs in 2022 and over 700,000 illegal border crossers, “gotaways,” evaded CBP apprehension since Biden took office, the report stated.

Biden’s Anti-Fossil Fuel Policies And High Gas Prices:

Trump predicted Biden’s energy policies would raise prices for Americans by destroying America’s energy independence.

“Joe Biden confirmed his plan to abolish the entire U.S. oil industry,” Trump told supporters at a 2020 campaign stop in Pennsylvania. “That means no fracking jobs and no energy for Pennsylvania.” (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: New Conservative Ad Blasts Biden For Allegedly Ruining Americans’ Summer)

“We have more oil than anybody, ok? … And you’re paying, what, $2 a gallon for your gasoline? That’s ok. You know what that’s like? That’s like a tax cut. That’s bigger than a tax cut. If Biden got in, you’d be paying $7, $8, $9. Then they’d say get rid of your car,” said Trump.

The Philadelphia Inquirer’s fact-check claimed Trump “vastly oversimplified” Biden’s “nuanced position” on energy policies. “Trump’s statement is inaccurate. We rate it False,” stated The Inquirer.

Gas prices in Gorda, California, hit $7.59 a gallon on March 6, making Trump’s prediction that gas prices would skyrocket under Biden correct.

The current average price of a gallon of gas in California is $6.29, with the national average at $4.86 a gallon, according to AAA.

The Biden campaign frequently addressed comments he made indicating the president wanted “get rid of fossil fuels.” But when confronted by protesters displeased with the campaign switch to being pro-oil and gas, Biden admitted he agreed with the protesters’ anti-fossil fuel agenda.

“We are going to get rid of fossil fuels,” Biden said. “They want to do the same thing that I want to do, they want to phase out fossil fuels, and we’re going to phase out fossil fuels.”

Trump’s prediction that Biden would be against American energy was substantiated when Biden signed Executive Order 13990 on his first day. The order immediately attacked the oil and gas industry by canceling the Keystone XL Pipeline and blocking drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

Biden’s order also directed several federal agencies like the U.S. Department of the Interior to review and eliminate all department policies that no longer conformed to the administration’s climate agenda. (RELATED: ANALYSIS: CEOs Shafted By Biden Ignore His Calls For Help)

A U.S. regulatory authority published the North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s (NERC) May report that at least 28 U.S. states face an energy crisis through the summer months due to a decline in energy capacity causing insufficient resources to “maintain system reliability.”

The 15-state region covered by Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) is at the highest risk of energy blackouts, and The Western Interconnection, Texas, Southwest Power Pool (SPP) is listed as being at an “elevated risk” of energy capacity issues, the report states.

Biden’s Economy:

“You will see a depression the likes of which you have never seen,” Trump warned Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo in August 2020. “I think if [Biden] wins, you’re going to end up with a disaster, to be honest.”

“I feel that if the Democrats get in, we are literally going to end up in a recession/depression, the likes of which you’ve never seen. There will be tremendous negative growth. There will be bedlam all over the place. There won’t be law and order,” Donald Trump told his son Donald Trump Jr. on a June 2020 episode of Triggered.

Consumers have suffered from the Biden administration’s inflationary spending, supply chain crisis, and attacks on U.S. energy markets which have caused a decline in real wages and crashing 401ks.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond and the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas released June survey reports showing the U.S. economy is slowing down under the weight of inflation.

The composite manufacturing index from Fifth District manufacturing firms “fell from -9 in May to -11 in June, as two of its three component indexes dropped further into negative territory,” the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond reported.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas reported factory activity in Texas fell from 18.8 in May to 2.3 in June, and the “new orders” index and the “future production index,” which gauge market demand to plan for future manufacturing needs, dropped for the first time in two years from 19.9 to 4.0.

Biden’s treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, admitted during an appearance on Wolf Blitzer’s CNN show, “The Situation Room,” that she misjudged the warning signs of how long inflation would plague Americans. (RELATED: Consumer Expectations For The Economy Hit Lowest Point In A Decade)

“I was wrong then about the path that inflation would take,” Yellen said. “As I mentioned, there have been unanticipated and large shocks to the economy that have boosted energy and food prices and supply bottlenecks that have affected our economy badly that I didn’t — at the time — didn’t fully understand, but we recognize that now.”

The Biden administration is proving Trump correct more than the fact-checkers would like to admit.