Trump’s de facto campaign chair: Trump will wreck the economy in order to save it (offer to save it will not be honored)

Let’s check in on the new Republican Economic Populism:

If gov't debt is too high and wages are suppressed, the solutions are (1) to properly tax the top 0.1%, which gobbles up 10% of the national income; and (2) to raise the minimum wage.

Those would accomplish the goals directly and safely.

They won't do that; they want the crash. pic.twitter.com/APd3kbf1gj— Max Kennerly (@MaxKennerly) October 29, 2024

As ridiculous as it is, Trump got a lot of political traction out of rhetorically distancing himself from some of the least popular aspects of Ryanomics in 2016. The libertarian billionaires who Trump has fallen in with have a very different vision, and are happy to share it in public. Even Paul Ryan, though, was smart enough to insist that his savage cuts were consistent with immediate economic prosperity. Musk is just being straightforward that mass deportations, spending cuts, and high tariffs would create a new depression.

And, for once, he ain’t lyin’! As Catherine Rampell says, “those who would trade democracy for financial gain are likely to get neither.”