As 2016 candidate Donald Trump spews racist rhetoric and peddles in far-right birther conspiracy theories, the media has largely not reminded us what he sounded like the last time he ran for president. Sixteen years ago, Trump came very close to running for president on Ross Perot’s Reform Party ticket—and he could not have been a more different candidate back then. Pat Buchanan was also seeking the nomination, and Trump
joined the Reform Party (with support from Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura) in part to save it from Buchanan—who he called a “Hitler lover.”
[Trump] said he believes the Reform Party can carve out a niche between the Republicans, whom he sees as too conservative, and the Democrats, whom he finds too liberal. “I believe the Reform Party can be the centrist party, which is in line with my beliefs.”
What were his beliefs? At the time, Trump
said he was “very pro-choice,” endorsed single-payer as solution to our healthcare crisis—and told
Meet the Press he was open-minded to supporting gay marriage.
But on one issue that would affect billionaires like him personally, Donald Trump could not have been more liberal. According to this CNN article from 1999, Trump proposed erasing the national debt—with a one-time “wealth tax” on the mega-rich.
Trump, a prospective candidate for the Reform Party presidential nomination, is proposing a one-time "net worth tax" on individuals and trusts worth $10 million or more.
And he even used language that would later become slogans for the Occupy movement to sell his proposal.
“By my calculations, 1 percent of Americans, who control 90 percent of the wealth in this country, would be affected by my plan,” Trump said. “The other 99 percent of the people would get deep reductions in their federal income taxes … Personally this plan would cost me hundreds of millions of dollars, but in all honesty, it’s worth it.”
Trump eventually dropped out of the race, and Buchanan was the Reform Party nominee that year—although he did win California’s primary in March 2000. Today, Trump has catapulted to second place for the GOP presidential nomination—using the kind of immigrant-bashing, race-baiting that Pat Buchanan made famous.