Donald Trump’s Legacy: The Stupid Party Gets Even Dumber

George Will famously called the republican party “the stupid party.” Thanks to Donald Trump, it has gotten dumber (stupider). The main culprit is the Economics of Trump – Trumponomics. Never mind that this brand of economics has repeatedly been shown to be suboptimal at best — Trump and his MAGA cultists have adopted it anyway: tariffs, trashing our (once) allies, and government ownership stakes in private corporations. Call it the Trump Government-Industrial Plan. Didn’t Bill Clinton declare that the era of big government was over? Donald Trump has proven him wrong, with government now moving into areas it never has before. 

Yes, tariffs have existed as long as governments have, but rarely has the United States employed them to this extent. Their sheer scale points to the flaccidity of a Congress that has surrendered its constitutional authority to the whims of this president.

I won’t dwell on the whims, inconsistencies and randomness of it all. I won’t belabor the point that tariffs are taxes — arguably the largest tax increase on households in our lifetime. What’s striking is that despite all the evidence against them, the republican establishment has embraced this tax increase with open arms (and the resulting hit to consumer wealth) and promises to keep it going long after Trump is gone. I haven’t heard a single republican — save Rand Paul — speak out against Trump’s border taxes.

The Trump Government-Industrial Plan is now the new republican economics. The question is whether it survives once Trump leaves the scene. For now, nearly every republican (Rand Paul excepted) pays it lip service. Some embrace it eagerly. Missouri’s Josh Hawley is on board — he even co-authored a bill with Bernie Sanders to cap consumer interest rates, an idea Trump has actually endorsed. The two people seen as most likely to inherit Trump’s mantle, Marco Rubio and JD Vance, have both voiced approval, with Vance going further than Rubio and positioning himself as an economic socialist. Vance wants more regulation of banks and big business and is fully on board with government taking equity stakes in private companies. But Vance is an economic illiterate — even worse than his boss. One business commentator put it bluntly: Vance doesn’t seem to understand the basic roles of capitalism and investment. Vance may be Trump’s heir-apparent. He may get the nomination. But he won’t be president.

Right now, Trump has inserted the government into industries he deems vital to national security — rare earth materials, big tech. He has decided that he is capable of picking winners and losers, despite all historical evidence to the contrary. Trump, like Biden before him, has his industrial plan of big government interference – only with different industries.

Government failure is being rewarded. “Affordability” is the buzzword of the moment, and the main fronts are food, housing, energy, and education. Isn’t it ironic that all of these could be made more affordable with less government regulation? Yet Republicans are running from deregulation and embracing the same playbook as the democratic socialists — some call it populism. I call it stupidity. What Trump is doing is making things less affordable, not more. One economist published a chart showing that the least affordable items in the economy were, overwhelmingly, the ones most burdened by government regulation. Trump and his allies have ignored Reagan’s warning about the most terrifying words in the English language: “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.” In fact, they have embraced it.

One rationale offered for this drift toward socialism and protectionism is to appease those blue-collar workers who have migrated from the democratic column to the republican one. “I’m going to save your job through protectionism and tariffs” has real appeal. “I’m going to stop credit card companies from gouging you by putting on an interest rate cap” has appeal. “I’m going to mine rare earth minerals, invest in chipmakers, and stop the dumping of cheap goods on our markets” — all of it sounds appealing. But all of it carries adverse consequences. I’m reminded of something my sainted father used to tell me: “All that sounds good, Harold — if you’re interested in sounds.”

White House spokesman Kush Desai has framed Trump’s economics as implementing “traditional free market policies that do work — like deregulation and tax cuts — while rectifying longtime America-Last policies that have left Americans behind.” In reality this should be implementing “traditional free market policies that do work — like deregulation and tax cuts — while also implementing policies that have proven not to work.” He should say that the policies that have left American’s behind are all government policies.

The republican Party is now the party of sound bites and socialist economics. The historical failures of these policies apparently mean nothing going forward. The strategy is to make the right noises, implement harmful policies, and let the consequences fall where they may. The upshot will be that affordability worsens, and the republican party (née the stupid party) gets replaced by something even worse.

Isn’t it interesting that socialists like Mamdani and El-Sayed rose to prominence on the same “affordability” mantra — a message embraced by disillusioned white, college-educated voters but rejected by working-class and black voters? What does that tell us? These voters are rejecting the looney tunes ideas coming from the left — defund the police, shut down the prisons, open the borders — while still wanting something done about food and gas prices. Ironically, those prices are climbing precisely because of the populist policies Trump and his followers have embraced. And yet they keep doubling down. 

The democrats are envious. They could not have gotten away with this but now that Trump has, be prepared to welcome all this into the fabric of American politics. Who was it that said that the republicans were just like the democrats – only a little less so?

So thanks Donald Trump for making the stupid party stupider.