Feud Over Trump

Economic Realists Versus Trump Politics

Recently, there has been a media-generated conflict between Club For Growth and Trump supporters. The latest is a new PAC which is supposedly going to attack Trump (https://dailycaller.com/2023/07/07/super-pac-trump-club-growth and https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/06/club-for-growth-linked-group-launches-effort-to-attack-trump-00105057). I fear diehard activists on multiple sides are missing the mark about the conflict. It is political primary season. There will be conflict.

Many sides need to come to the realization of what Trump’s appeal is. Trump has tapped into a very angry group of blue-collar workers who have been abandoned by the Democrat Party. Trump was a supporter of Bill Clinton during the 1990s and political analyst Dick Morris was a political advisor to Clinton. However, in the 21 first century, the Democrat Party became rudderless and fell into the trap of supporting progressives, climate change, and identity politics. The contentions over the Iraq War (tyrant Saddam Hussein could not be trusted on anything) were exploited by Democrats. The result was the polished progressive Barack Obama.

Trump appeals to the working class by often adopting the rhetoric of Bernie Sanders and Ron Paul. Trump tended to echo the progressive economics of Robert Reich, Paul Krugman, and John Maynard Keynes, mostly on raising tariffs. Trump, however, would choose the likes of Mike Pence, arch-conservative, for vice president and Art Laffer, Stephen Moore, and Larry Kudlow, the three disciples of supply-side economics, for economic advisors. The economy soared with the changes Trump made.

People are still trashing US Senator Ben Sasse over many things. When he switched from the Agricultural Committee to the Judiciary Committee, there were screams from so many. Yet, Sasse helped select and process the judges Trump would nominate and appoint to the US Supreme Court. The lesson here is conservatives should focus on where they agree with others instead of disagreement. Yet, people really prefer to pick a fight. Believe me, Sasse is very, very happy with the overturning of Roe v Wade as are conservatives. Give Sasse some credit on this matter but Trump supporters are still trashing him for his political ineptitude and acrimony.

Trump wanted to raise all sorts of tariffs to “protect American businesses” from China but US tariffs only tax one national group: the American people. This annoys economists who point out such tariffs can cause trade wars through retaliatory tariffs which would hurt Nebraska exports. Now the issue is Social Security. Trump knows this is a political pitfall and does not want to touch the program at all. However, the economic realists know, Social Security benefits will be cut by over 20 percent when the program becomes insolvent. Social Security was designed to keep seniors out of poverty but now there are Social Security checks going to millionaires who use the funds to pay for their annual Caribbean cruise. Reforms are necessary if Social Security is to have any meaningful purpose.

Club for Growth, sticking to economic principles, put out this ad on the subject, merely to push the facts about the problems of Social Security but many are merely viewing it as an attack on Trump. However, how many Social Security recipients want to see their benefits cut by over 20 percent? Economic reality meets politics. But Trump has navigated this type of conflict before. The question is, can he do it again?