I’ve never been a fan of Donald Trump, though my criticism has always focused on his support for bad policies such as wasteful spending, foolish protectionism, and corrupt cronyism.
Today I’m going to change hats and pretend to be a political pundit so I can offer some unsolicited advice to my Republican friends.
If they like to win elections, they need to realize that Donald Trump is bad news.
Yes, he beat a very unpopular Hillary Clinton in 2016, but every subsequent election has produced Republican disappointment.
- The 2018 midterm elections.
- The 2020 presidential election.
- The 2022 midterm elections.
What should most upset the GOP is that Trump has given Democrats control of the Senate twice. First, by depressing Republican turnout in the two Georgia runoff contests with his sore-loser routine about stolen elections in the 2020 cycle. Second, by convincing Republican voters to nominate inferior candidates in the 2022 cycle.
But the fault is not entirely with Trump.
As illustrated by this cartoon, a significant share of Republican voters like Trump and this gives him enormous power over the GOP.
The interesting question to answer is why many rank-and-file Republicans feel so loyal to Trump – even though he often supported bad policies and has helped Democrats gain power in Washington.
I actually answered that question early last year. Here’s some of that column.
One thing that surprised me over the past four yeas is that I found strong support for Trump from grassroots conservative Republicans. Yes, they didn’t like his fiscal profligacy and they mostly didn’t like his protectionism, but they did like the fact that he was a “fighter,” unlike so many (but not all) Republican politicians who get cozy with the DC establishment. They also figured he was worth supporting because he was so reviled by the establishment media (i.e., the enemy of my enemy is my friend).
I think that analysis still applies, but let’s dig deeper. Another problem is that Republican voters think anti-Trump GOP politicians must be bad (closet Democrats, or something like that).
That may be true in some cases, with Mitt Romney being an obvious example.
But that binary analysis – the Trump camp vs the every-other-Republican camp – is woefully inadequate.
I think it’s more accurate (though obviously simplified) to look at the Republican Party as having three camps. And here’s a Venn diagram with my amateur depiction of what unites and divides them.
I’m sure many of you already know my conclusion, which is that the Republican Party should opt for Reaganism.
That’s the approach that reflects good policy and good politics.
I’ve written many times why it is good policy, so I’ll conclude by elaborating on why it is good politics.
Simply stated, Trump voters don’t trust establishment Republicans. They view them as proponents of things they don’t like such as bailouts, globalism, and amnesty.
And establishment Republicans obviously don’t like Trump and Trumpie candidates, even if only for stylistic reasons.
Reaganism, by contrast, can unite all the factions. And when I say Reaganism, I’m not just talking about tax cuts. What we need is the full market-friendly Reagan agenda of spending restraint, deregulation, trade expansion, and sound money.
International Liberty 
[…] motivated by various forces such as big-government Trumpism and big-government national conservatism, Republicans do the wrong […]
[…] motivated by various forces such as big-government Trumpism and big-government national conservatism, Republicans do the wrong […]
I cannot disagree with your logic.
Wasn’t Trump a big-time NY Democrat before he decided to run as a Republican?
[…] part I of this series, I argued that Trump’s big-government populism was bad politics as well as bad […]
From the outset Reagan led Herbert Hoover prohibitionists into Kamikaze warfare to ban relatively harmless drugs–marijuana, LSD, mescaline–thereby protecting the heroin, meth and alcohol markets from competition–even at the cost of market crashes and recessions. That and Comstock-law fanaticism calling for prohibition of all forms of birth control make Republicans absolute poison to anything they pal up to–like keeping energy safe and legal.
[…] « Republican Warfare, Part I: The Trump Problem […]
I’d be happy if Trump gracefully disappeared. His main thing is he fights back. I consider that a positive, but Trump turns it neutral or even negative. One, it’s usually too much about attacking people instead of defending policies. Two, it’s rude and crude enough to turn away a small percentage of Republicans AND motivate some Democrats to vote against him. Electability does matter! Three, it too often involves attacking Republicans. In a country where most of the cultural institutions (media, colleges, etc) already fill the air with criticism of Republicans, Republicans should not be eager to attack other Republicans.
Maybe all this would be OK if Trump was an otherwise perfect candidate, but he’s not. He’s not a consistent and principled defender of free enterprise and small government. And he’s too self-centered, even for a politician. We will be better off if he fades into the sunset.
[…] Republican Warfare, Part I: The Trump Problem […]
Sadly, De Santis might not be as willing to fight for Main Street the way Trump once did.
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/11/06/desantis-megadonor-billionaire-head-of-citadel-investments-ken-griffin-explains-why-he-purchased-ron-desantis-for-2024-and-what-he-expects-from-his-investment/
The help of RINOS who only seek power and personal profit.
It is not Trump that failed, but academics like you.
All high and mighty with theories, but no ability to implement them in the real world.
Trump didn’t give the Democrats anything. They’ve stolen elections with
The Dems helped fund Trump-backed candidates in AZ, and it worked. The Trump-backed candidate won the primaries and lost in the general election.
Pretty dead-on assessment in my opinion. I’ve wished for Mr. Trump to retire for some time now, even though I voted for him in 2016. His time came, and is now over. DeSantis is the new face of the Republican Party.
President Trump is a businessman rather than a politician. Unfortunately, his selection of responsible politicians has not been sterling. Could this be because the supply of responsible politicians is very limited while most of them are very accomplished liars?
Practically, his political advisors are responsible for “his policies such as wasteful spending, foolish protectionism, and corrupt cronyism.policies such as wasteful spending, foolish protectionism, and corrupt cronyism.”