We are told that Donald Trump owes his victory to rural, blue-collar whites, especially those living in the upper Midwest. Trump’s appeal to this demographic was based partly on racial fears and partly on economic loss. With that in mind, these folks deserve a few metrics to tell them if Trump is making 
good on his promise to make their lives better. Here’s my top ten list of things to watch:
- Miles of wall built on the southern border. (Current number: 0)
- Number of manufacturing jobs. (Current number: about 12 million)
- Population of illegal immigrants in the United States. (Current number: about 11 million in 2014)
- Total federal spending on infrastructure (First term of Obama administration: about $400 billion)
- Trade deficit. (Current number: $500 billion in 2015)
- U6 unemployment rate. (Current number: 9.7 percent)
- Change in net imports from Mexico due to renegotiating NAFTA. (Current number: $60 billion in 2015)
- Change in net imports from China due to punitive tariffs etc. (Current number: $367 billion in 2015)
- Tax reductions for working class. (Baseline: 7.9 percent of income for all federal taxes for the second income quintile)
- Tax reductions for the wealthy. (Baseline: 25.8 percent of income for all federal taxes for the top quintile)
Some of these will need to be updated to 2016 numbers when they’re available, but this gives you a rough idea of where Trump is starting from.
