What did Donald Trump do today?

He celebrated Veterans Day by threatening to send US troops into Chicago to fight a real estate bubble.

Just before 1 A.M. on Veterans Day, Trump posted this to his private microblogging website:

First of all, there is no "Miracle Mile Shopping Center." Well, actually, there are four, but none of them are in Chicago. (This is a common error in Trump world, which once held a press conference at a landscaping business because it had gotten it confused with Philadelphia's Four Seasons Hotel.) 

 

Trump probably meant the "Magnificent Mile," which is not a shopping center, but the part of Michigan Avenue between E. Lake Shore Dr. and the river best known for its upscale shopping and dining.

More to the point, violent crime is extremely low in that area, which is heavily patrolled by the Chicago PD. 

The real reason that there are high vacancy rates is that rents on commercial real estate is sky-high, as landlords try to maximize profit. For example, one of the business that have moved out of their Michigan Avenue digs recently is the H&M clothing store—but it moved to a smaller location two blocks away, still on the Magnificent Mile, because its new landlords refused to renew the lease. H&M moved into the space vacated by an Apple store, which itself moved to another Michigan Avenue location just a few blocks away.

Trump regularly lies about crime in the United States, which is still historically low and has been declining in recent years. But he's also wrong about the business trajectory of the Magnificent Mile: its vacancy rate is already dropping as market forces (and a gloomy economic outlook) drop rents into a range businesses are willing to pay.

In other words, Trump—who owns a hotel several hundred feet from the Magnificent Mile—is proposing to once again deploy American troops against American citizens, but this time because a real estate bubble that would affect him personally might be about to deflate.

It's not clear who Trump was demanding to "CALL IN THE TROOPS, FAST," because he is the only person who could order that. But he couldn't do so legally unless there was an actual rebellion or insurrection, and businesses choosing not to pay too much for a lease probably doesn't count.

Why does this matter?

• A president who had even the slightest bit of respect for Americans or the Americans who serve in the military wouldn't try to pit them against each other.