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Making Sense of The (Supposed) Trump Economic Agenda
Did the left finally break the right on economic policy? Or is this more smoke and mirrors?
We saw hints of a Republican divide on economic policy during the first Trump administration.
For some Republicans, free-trade was out, tariffs were back in. Labor unions weren’t exactly welcome with open arms, but some of the hostility eased. Corporations were no longer in the alliance, and were no longer untouchable.
But it wasn’t a movement adopted by a majority of Republicans. In the end, while the Trump administration did impose tariffs, traditional economic conservatives won the battle. The biggest legislative achievement involving economic policy was the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, a very much Republican bill. The standard Republican economic policies were all there, including massive tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations.
For all the talk, Trump did not really walk the walk, and signed it into law.
The results were predictable. Many corporations took their windfalls and bought back stock, further enriching the investor class. Some came hat in hand looking for bailouts when the COVID pandemic hit, claiming poverty, despite record amounts of stock buybacks over the last couple of years.
