In 2024 Donald Trump based his reelection campaign’s rhetoric on deregulation and tax cuts to free the private sector from burdensome regulations and to stimulate economic activity. In practice, Trump 2.0’s economy has looked less like that small-C conservative ideal and more like the protectionist and mercantilist status quo of the early 20th century.
“This is the most interventionist government of my lifetime,” Justin Wolfers, an economist at the University of Michigan, told progressive news network MeidasTouch in an interview released Sunday. “It’s the least conservative government of my lifetime.”
