Trump’s Economic Platform Is a Dog’s Breakfast

...the plan...has no discernible underlying philosophy.

Scrutinizing politics – and political candidates – is a depressing endeavor. The ideology of the left comprises a blatantly immoral framework from which derives only evil and corruption, so there is little use in an organized critique of their candidate or policies. The right, on the other hand, flirts with a coherent moral framework but repeatedly violates it in practice. The direction of this violation is always to the ideological left, with two primary results. First, a sustained leftward shift of politics and society as a whole, as both parties move to the left. Second, a republican party that, at any point in time, looks like the democrat party thirty years prior.

Nevertheless, in the interest of objectively highlighting the key economic components of the Trump-GOP plan, a high-level analysis is offered below of those programs anticipated by the Trump administration and advertised in the 2024 Trump-GOP platform.

“Exceedingly Great and Precious Promises”

The 2024 Trump-GOP platform offers “twenty core promises” – practices and actions that the administration means to execute if put into office – as well as some detailed commentary supporting each of them.

While all twenty can be said to have some economic relevance in practice, many of them (e.g., “keep men out of women’s sports”) pertain more to the cultural milieu and will not be covered here. Rather, what follows is an attempt to decipher those promises that pertain to markets and economic policy, infer their fundamental premises, and suggest possible effects of their implementation.

What readers may notice is that the plan, when taken as a whole, has no discernible underlying philosophy. It is not guided by a focused and consistent set of beliefs, all complementing one another. Rather, it appears like a random series of mottos generated by a mish mash of advisory boards, lobbying pressures, one-off suggestions, and polling conclusions.

Eleven Core Economic Promises

Promise #3: “End Inflation and Make America Affordable Again”

Putting aside the common misuse of the term inflation, this is clearly a reference to increases in prices for things people buy. This is expounded in the supporting detail of the document, which even promises to “quickly bring down prices” as opposed to bringing down the rate of price increases, as reported by the consumer price index (“CPI”). In other words, the incoming administration promises price deflation.

Only by understanding the nature of price inflation – to wit, a byproduct of increasing money supply (i.e., inflation, properly defined) driven by fiscal overspending supported by the central bank’s permanently loose monetary policy and a national currency untethered to anything but the promises of an increasingly bankrupt administration – can it be properly addressed.

Since the platform document fails to mention even once the Federal Reserve – the black void from which all inflation emanates – readers can be virtually certain that this promise is empty. Subsequent promises drive home this expectation.

Promise #4: “Make America the Dominant Energy Producer in the World, By Far!”

Instead of comparing energy production to other countries, a far better promise would be to remove limitations and regulations on the natural development of this part of the American economy – particularly those regulations related to climate change concerns. A free market, acting without guidance or hindrance from government, is the ideal to be pursued. Bureaucratic planning, by people who don’t know a derrick from a well, will only get in the way.

Promise #5: “Stop Outsourcing, and Turn the US Into a Manufacturing Superpower"

Economic populism and industry protectionism are powerful political tools, but antithetical to free markets and individual prosperity – ideals the political right claims to espouse.

This promise is both an attempt to win rust-belt votes and a confession of economic ignorance on the part of the would-be GOP administration. Simply ask yourself what would happen to consumer prices if the choice of buying less costly imports was taken out of the hands of three hundred million Americans and replaced with protectionist tariffs and a reliance on the bloated and corrupt American labor union complex.

Promise #6: “Large Tax Cuts for Workers, and No Tax on Tips!”

Government is inherently coercive, and any indication that they plan to steal less from American taxpayers is welcome. However, direct taxation is only one form used by government to lower the quality of life for Americans. If lower taxes are not combined with less government spending and a reduction or cessation in inflationary monetary intervention by the Fed, they are meaningless. Worse than meaningless, as the reduction in headline taxes will lower the guard of the average American, making him blind to the robbery occurring by other means.

Promise #9: “End the weaponization of government against the American people.”

For an administration with such a recent and disgraceful history of weaponizing government against its people – including encouragement of lockdowns and useless injections during the covid panic – this promise is literally unbelievable.

Most notably, the Trump administration – in close coordination with the subsequent Biden administration – facilitated a massive money-printing binge in 2020, which led directly to a 30% decline in purchasing power for average Americans. No admission of error has ever been made for this debacle, and none is forthcoming. The root of economic dysfunction – a fiat money system that enables huge deficits and constant money creation from nothing – will not be amended or even addressed by this administration.

Again, there is not a single mention of the Federal Reserve in the Trump-GOP platform. The entity most responsible for the decline in living standards of Americans gets a free pass.

Promise #11: “Rebuild our cities including Washington DC, making them safe, clean, and beautiful again.”

The “rebuilding” of cesspits like Washington DC, much of the southern half of California, and others should be left to their residents who ostensibly voted for the policies that turned them into cesspits to begin with. Charging the rest of the country to finance this effort is simply another form of taxation. 

Promise #12: “Strengthen and modernize our military, making it, without question, the strongest and most powerful in the world.”

This is an obvious nod to the defense industry and its lobbyists that have already made their way into the Trump administration’s inner circle. So much for draining the swamp.

The US Department of Defense has a trillion-dollar annual budget - three times greater than any other country on earth - comprising 40% of global defense spending. US bureaucrats have created and perpetuated countless unnecessary wars in the last several decades, resulting in many millions dead, including hundreds of thousands of Americans. Off the battlefield, servicemen have committed suicide at a rate of over 6,000 per year for the last 20 years. More money to the war machine is an insane proposition.

Promise #13: “Keep the US Dollar as the world’s reserve currency.”

This is a goal that primarily benefits the state itself, not the American people, as reserve currency status will allow for continued monetary manipulation coupled with excessive borrowing and spending by the Fed and Treasury.

Furthermore, the spending suggested in the platform document and the constant trashing of the USD through loose monetary policy is at odds with this promise, and will ensure the exact opposite – the decline and ultimate death of the US dollar as a stable currency of any kind.

Promise #14: “Fight for and protect social security and Medicare with no cuts, including no changes to the retirement age.”

Seniors in America are the wealthiest cohort in the history of the world. They need nobody to fight for them. Social security and Medicare are already woefully bankrupt, and the only sensible approach is a path to terminate these programs entirely. Government is not meant to manage retirement funds or old-age healthcare plans. Federal capture and subsidization of these schemes are the primary reasons that healthcare costs for the old – and everyone else – are skyrocketing without end.

Promise #15: “Cancel the electric vehicle mandate and cut costly and burdensome regulations.”

The irony of putting this promise immediately after pledging not to cut two of the most costly and burdensome programs should not be lost on anyone.

Promise #16: “Cut federal funding for any school pushing critical race theory, radical gender ideology, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children.”

Children are not collective property – they belong to their parents. Furthermore, federal funding of education broadly is the primary reason such nonsense exists in schools in the first place. Nothing less than full abolition of federal government involvement and funding in schooling is the sensible approach.

No One Is Coming To Save You

Without losing sight of the likelihood that a Trump-GOP administration is better than a leftist regime, recognize that any distinction between the two is marginal. Both will increase the size of government, thus restricting decentralization efforts and the individual flourishing of its citizens, all while maintaining a regime of perpetual inflation that continuously drives up prices while driving down quality of life.

Political promises have no moral strings attached. They are meant to be broken, and you can be sure the preceding will be as well. The solution for those concerned with individual liberty is to continue to dissociate from the state regardless of which party takes office.