This piece vastly overstates Trump’s break with GOP traditions (& also wrongly accepts as fact that “deficit reduction” is one of them). On taxes, regulation, military Keynesianism, cuts to social programs and much else, he has been in line with the party. washingtonpost.com/business/2019/…
In the ways that matter to GOP elites, Trump has presided over the economy not as a “populist” but as a traditionalist. His policies have benefitted the wealthy and corporations. OTOH, he has tried to take away health care, cut food stamp benefits, opposed minimum wage increases
Which “deficit hawks” in the GOP is @JStein_WaPo talking about? We all know that this species only exists when a Democrat is president-remember faux “deficit hawk,” Paul Ryan? The GOP nearly all voted for Trump’s budget busting tax cuts.
“Traditional,” a word that appears a lot in this piece, is a term that should be used with caution, since it often captures GOP myth rather than reality—such as in “traditional” GOP concerns about “deficit reduction.”
Is it really a shock, or a break from tradition, that Trump is using the tools of government to provide assistance to farmers, an important voting bloc, and to goose the economy?
@JStein_WaPo loosely uses the words “populist” and “populism,” assigns them a positively valence as oriented toward ordinary people, and assumes that these terms accurately describe Trump, in spite of his signature plutocratic policies.
What is “striking” is not “the breadth of Trump’s departure” from GOP “traditions” but the degree to which the vast bulk of his policies have been in line with those traditions. And what’s also striking is the degree to which the media has proclaimed him an economic “populist.”
