Donald Trump: A populist who wages class war on behalf of the rich
CONOR LYNCH at Salon
https://www.salon.com/2017/11/25/donald-trump-a-populist-who-wages-class-war-on-behalf-of-the-rich/
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Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign was widely viewed as a kind of populist revolt against the Washington establishment. As a candidate, the billionaire promised voters that he would take on the elite and fight for the “forgotten men and women” of America, and promoted himself as a man of the people.
Yet since becoming president Trump has done virtually nothing to improve the lot of ordinary Americans who work for a living. In fact, his administration’s policies have, for the most part, benefited people like President Trump — i.e., the super-rich — while hurting working class Americans. Instead of governing like a man of the people, Trump has governed like a man of the billionaire class.
The latest instance of this comes with the Republican attempt at tax reform. Last week, the House passed a widely unpopular bill that would dramatically cut taxes for corporations and the rich, while eliminating deductions that benefit middle-class people. Now Republicans in the Senate are working to pass their own legislation, which wouldn’t just slash taxes for the rich, but raise taxes on the working poor, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan congressional Joint Committee on Taxation. As some commentators have pointed out, these bills are blatant acts of class warfare, in the form of the rich waging war on everyone else.
One would think these pro-billionaire policies would discredit the president’s populist image once and for all, and prove to his supporters that he is not the “blue-collar billionaire” he presented himself as. To call Trump a man of the people is about as accurate as calling the recently deceased Charles Manson a peace-loving hippie.
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