A growing chorus of pundits are painting a picture of Donald Trump moving away from “populism” toward a more “traditional” Republican approach. Peter Baker takes a swat at this idea in Tuesday’s New York Times.
As he nears 100 days in the White House, Mr. Trump has demonstrated that while he won office on a populist message, he has not consistently governed that way. He rails against elites, including politicians, judges, environmentalists, Hollywood stars and the news media. But he has stocked his administration with billionaires and lobbyists while turning over his economic program to a Wall Street banker. He may be at war with the Washington establishment, but he has drifted away from some of the anti-establishment ideas that animated his campaign.
But though populism provided a neat—and extremely affirmative—label, there was never much resemblance between what Trump was proposing and that of historically populist figures like Huey Long or William Jennings Bryan. Yes, Trump captured a large following in rural areas and successfully attacked the concept of an “elite” of academics and environmentalists, but that’s not a populist position. That’s a Republican position, one that’s been built up over decades of talk radio, Fox News, and Tea Party rallies. Despite some fist-waving at corporations that move out of the nation—rhetoric that has led to exactly no action—Trump’s message was strongly pro-corporate, fiercely anti-government, and heavily racist. Completely Republican.
Trump’s speeches found their villains in government regulation, immigrant workers and weak leaders. His proposed solutions were white privilege, government destruction, and the intrinsic genius of businessmen. That’s not populism. It’s conservatism salted with white nationalism.
Traditional populists did insist on cutting taxes and fees, but mostly those that directly affected and disadvantaged the poor, like reducing the cost of public education, poll taxes, and high tolls for the use of infrastructure. Those positions are anathema to Trump. Traditional populists also brought government healthcare and jobs programs.
Traditional populism was squarely focused on income disparity and the threat money and power held for democracy. Trump’s position was always in support of a moneyed elite, of the idea that wealth signals worth. There’s a reason why so many were quick to draw lines between what Trump was offering—an regressive oligarchy that celebrated white privilege—and fascist movements. They have much more in common than anything that in the past was called populist.
The idea that Donald Trump doesn’t fit within the traditional Republican Party only strikes those who haven’t been able to keep up with the race Republicans have made toward the extreme, and more extreme, and extremely extreme right.
Trump’s positions on the environment aren’t un-Republican, they’re the most extreme Republican positions lifted straight from that party’s most oil-drenched ranks. His climate denial was already there, at the heart of the party. The mythology of the EPA as job-destroyer was already there, at the heart of the party. He’s just raising a banner others were already holding.
Trump’s positions on economic regulations aren’t un-Republican, they’re the most extreme Republican positions, taken straight from the party’s corporate center. The destruction of worker rights is a lifetime project of the Republican Party. The elimination of safety rules was a goal of George W. Bush. Trump’s policies are nothing but Reagan’s trickle-down—with little in the way of updates.
Trump’s positions on racism aren’t un-Republican. Throwing obstacles in the way of black and brown voters isn’t Trump’s idea, it’s been at the center of the Republican power plan through cycle after cycle. Gerrymandering minorities to restrict their power has been a project Republicans have worked at diligently year after year, in state after state. Treating immigrants as threatening others isn’t Trump’s idea—there have been at least forty years of Republicans building more-nationalist-than-the-last-guy platforms.
Trump isn’t coming home to the Republican Party. He is the Republican Party. He has been from the beginning.
On foreign policy, Trump has genuinely drifted from some campaign positions, but those positions were never clear in any case. They mingled isolationist rhetoric with the same kick-butt mock toughness that has characterized Republican hawks for as long as the party has existed. All that’s happened is that Trump has de-emphasized the isolationist rhetoric, mostly because there’s nothing that has served to boost Republican polls in the past like blowing hell out of some distant country.
Trump hasn’t ceased to be a populist. He was never a populist. Those issues where he has “drifted” from campaign positions, are simply places where it’s taken Trump more time to settle into the slot he’s already taken on everything else—at the most extreme, right-wing position. The modern Republican position. His policy on immigration is not one whit less severe or racist. His policy on the environment not one pipeline less aggressively destructive. His policy on the economy not one dime less self-serving and directed at benefiting the wealthy. He’s not moderating. Just more clearly than ever what he always was.
Donald Trump is where he started—at the head of a party designed and directed at helping people like Donald Trump. It’s just taken some pundits an astoundingly long time to notice.