With a foreword from Robert F Kennedy Jr, David Stockman, once Ronald Reagan’s budget director, delivers an unsparing attack on Donald Trump. The former president’s stances on trade, social security, spending and Covid all receive a beatdown. Stockman was somewhat sympathetic to Trump when he rose to power eight years ago but has since grown hostile, posing as a keeper of the flame of Reaganism, defender of free markets and opponent of statist encroachment.
Stockman’s plug from RFK Jr, a former candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination now running as an independent, is noteworthy. After reminding the reader of past antipathy toward Stockman over cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency budget four decades ago, Kennedy lauds him for criticizing Trump on Covid.
