Tracking Trump's Term

December 2, 2016 10:15 AM

I want to keep track of how Trump "Makes America Great Again" during his term. What should I keep track of, and from which sources?

So far I'm thinking of things like jobs, interest rates, and DJIA. Anything that would help answer the "are you better off" question in four years.

posted by kirkaracha to Law & Government (9 answers total)

Number of deportations (bonus points for a split out by minor vs adult).

Countries in which we ultimately end up with ground troops where none are today.

Number of people who lose health insurance.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 10:17 AM on December 2, 2016 [5 favorites]

Best answer: Some ideas.

Unemployment rate.
Trade Deficit
GDP
Incarceration rate by race
Deaths in Custody and/or by police by race.
Rape statistics. Actual vs reported because I imagine the reported numbers will go down as the police & judiciary become less proactive in supporting rape & sexual assault victims.
Gun related Deaths
Remaining Planned Parenthood Clinics.
Average travel time/distance to get an abortion.
Education spending. If you could create a comparison by average income of parents or majority race in neighborhood this could be very telling.
Cost per job retained in country. ie How much he's giving away in tax breaks to retain jobs in the USA.
Health Insurance Premium cost increase.
Pharmaceutical price increases
Cost of food. Consumer Price Index.
Average Wage
Average working week.

Slightly harder to measure but the one that is going to bug me no end for the next 4 years.
# of attempts made to gaslight.
posted by wwax at 10:58 AM on December 2, 2016

Best answer: This site will be tracking his campaign promises, so you might be able to get some answers there eventually. Or not.
posted by Ruki at 10:59 AM on December 2, 2016 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Well, when researchers look at "how well off" a country's people are, they tend to look at factors such as infant mortality, literacy rates, employment rates of women, and the like. This data is usually delayed a few years because it takes a while to calculate, but it should be pretty clear in six years what the trends are. UNESCO has a nice data visualizer you might enjoy.

posted by epanalepsis at 11:14 AM on December 2, 2016 [1 favorite]

Look at the U.S. Department of Education Civil Rights Data Collection for disciplinary disparities broken out by race. Keep track of ED's newly opened civil rights investigations.
posted by jgirl at 11:17 AM on December 2, 2016

Hate crime stats.
posted by mareli at 11:32 AM on December 2, 2016

multiple ways to measure poverty [using the poverty rate isn't always the most accurate/beneficial]. Possible measures could include:
-Rate of Homelessness
-Rate of use of food banks
-# of food-insecure americans
-% of kids on free/reduced lunch [if it still exists]
-# of libraries closed
-drop out rates

I also wouldn't exclusively use something like $ amount we spend on SNAP (food stamps), or even # of people enrolled in SNAP, because it's possible that under a Trump administration, the number of people who are able to use SNAP will go down, but the number of people who need it will go up.


also: ceo:average worker pay ratios
posted by nuclear_soup at 1:39 PM on December 2, 2016

The Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED) in DC releases an Assets and Opportunity Scorecard every year that tracks several measures under these five categories: Financial Assets and Income, Businesses and Jobs, Housing and Homeownership, Health Care, and Education. There are scorecards available starting from 2002 if you are interested in observing past trends. This will be useful to track the financial security of low-income and moderate-income communities over the next four years.
posted by Become A Silhouette at 2:20 PM on December 3, 2016

Response by poster: Thanks, everyone! Trump Tracker (thanks, Ruki!) and Trump Meter are pretty good for tracking his campaign promises.
They're not quite as good as I can imagine, but I don't have the time and skill to do something appreciably better.

I'm making a single-page site that will list all of the things he said he would do on Day One.
posted by kirkaracha at 5:08 PM on December 3, 2016