Thread by @LarryGlickman

I have a chapter in my book called “Faith in Free Enterprise,” and Kudlow is clearly drawing on this tradition. As I show, it was easier to assert this faith as well as to say what it wasn’t (“socialism”) than to define what it means.
washingtontimes.com/news/2020/feb/… via @washtimes

It is a particularly interesting time for the GOP to invoke “free enterprise” since, as I discuss in the Epilogue, Trump is the first GOP leader since the term was re-invented as an anti-New Deal slogan in the 1930s not to embrace it or even say the words.

However one defines “free enterprise,” it is hard to see how Trump’s brand of crony capitalism qualifies in any way. He picks winners and losers, bribes farmers with taxpayer money, stiff arms federal workers to stay at his properties and rent his golf carts.

Trump has never expressed the slightest interest in the spiritual beauty of free markets. No Reaganesque celebrations of their “magic” or “miracles” for him. Throughout his career, he has sought the state capture of markets to pursue his personal and political interests.

This is why I would expect more rhetoric along the lines of the CPAC theme of “America vs. Socialism.” This sort of nationalist argument is more in keeping with Trumpism than the traditional juxtaposition with “freedom” or “the free enterprise system.”
washingtonpost.com/arts-entertain…

Compare the 2016 GOP platform, which includes two desultory mentions of free enterprise, with those 1936-2016, in which the free enterprise/New Deal liberalism juxtaposition was typically front and center. As recently as 2012, free enterprise/Obamacare was a central theme.

The Trump presidency is the apotheosis of “socialism for the rich, free enterprise for the poor,” as Martin Luther King, Jr. put it. But Trump has gone a step farther by using the tools of government to enrich himself and his family.

Remember when presidential advisor @KellyannePolls leveraged her position in the White House to urge people to buy Ivanka Trump branded products?
nytimes.com/2017/02/09/us/…

Or when Attorney General Barr held a holiday party at Trump’s hotel?
washingtonpost.com/business/2019/…

Or when the military spent millions to prop up a Trump property in Scotland?
vox.com/policy-and-pol…

Or that the Secret Service has paid inflated prices to stay at Trump properties?
washingtonpost.com/politics/secre…

The examples of a Trump’s self-dealing could be extended. The point is that he is doing exactly what Adam Smith warned about in “The Wealth of Nations,” namely, using government privilege to favor his businesses and enrich himself.

The bottom line is this: until now, the Trump administration has wisely downplayed “free enterprise” rhetoric since it doesn’t accord with Trump’s temperament, rhetoric, and policies. Doing so now may well lay bare the hypocrisy and corruption at the core of Trump’s presidency.