Trump is a Socialist

President Donald J. Trump is a socialist, thus America’s current chief executive cannot protect anybody from socialism.

To explain, Trump has historically promoted historically socialist solutions to America’s problems like single-payer healthcare and massive government spending. In addition, the Donald has never been shy about accepting government handouts that benefit his business.

Moreover, Trump thinks the government should have the power to seize private individuals’ property without a criminal conviction. In fact such asset forfeiture is an official Trump administration policy.

Incredibly, Trump’s business used eminent domain to seize private property to get land for casinos, the conservative Cato Institute alleges. Consequently, Trump’s idea of property rights is closer to Nicolás Maduro’s than Ayn Rand’s.

Trump wants a certain Kind of Socialism

Conversely, what Trump really represents is socialism for the few. Former Treasury Secretary Robert Reich is partially right when he charges Trump with promoting “Socialism for the Rich.”

To clarify, Trump’s rhetoric offers socialism for white people, working-class white men, and seniors besides the rich. Notably, Trump strongly supports Social Security and Medicare two programs past conservatives; like Barry Goldwater (R-Arizona), denounced as socialism.

Incredibly, Trump is attacking single-payer health insurance as a threat to Medicare (which is a single-payer health insurance program for senior citizens). Thus, Trump thinks socialism is great, as long as it benefits him, or his voters.

Trump cannot protect America from Socialism

Therefore, Trump’s promise to protect America from socialism is pure hypocrisy.

What Trump (R-New York) fears is not socialism but government regulation and higher taxes.  Moreover, Trump seems to fear socialism that benefits people of color.

Notably, Trump is just as opposed to capitalism (free trade) that benefits people of color as socialism. Specifically, Trump’s trade policies target non-white majority countries like China and Mexico. Hence, Trump wants socialist regulations; tariffs, he claims will protect white working-class jobs.

Instead, Trump is demonstrating that he is desperate and trying to drum up support from conservatives by using fear tactics. My guess is Trump thinks he can trick conservatives into voting for him by saying the “S-word.” However, I think Trump will have a hard time scaring up any votes from people under 60 with such tactics.

Sorry Conservatives, Trump cannot protect America from Socialism

Under these circumstances, Trump is the wrong man to protect America from socialism. Hence, Trump will disappoint cultural conservatives; like The American Conservative’s Rod Dreher, who think the president can protect America from socialism.

Dreher correctly points out that socialism and social conservativism are inherently incompatible. Thus, under Dreher’s thesis, Trump is a threat to social conservativism.

To explain, Trump accepts and lives the soft-core upper-class American version of socialism. That version of socialism is a powerful police force and just enough social programs to keep the poor away from the country club.

Notably, FiveThirtyEight pollster Nate Silver calculates that socially liberal mostly upper-class fiscal conservatives are one of Trump’s most important constituencies. To explain, the socially liberal fiscal conservative does not care about social issues.

Thus, a socially liberal fiscal conservative like Trump will accept cultural socialism as long as his taxes stay low. Therefore, I predict Trump will throw social conservatives under the bus at some point.

Trump is a Cultural Socialist

Trump cannot stop socialism because he is a cultural socialist. Instead, the best social conservatives can hope for is that Trump can limit government power. 

Yes, Trump is cutting regulations, proposing lower budgets, and signing tax cuts. However, Trump is presiding over a dangerous expansion of law enforcement power.

Like many plutocrats, Trump apparently believes that the tools of socialism can protect the wealthy from socialism. For instance, Trump supports asset forfeiture (warrantless seizure of private property) from suspected criminals.

Consequently, social conservatives will regret their Trump votes when they see a future Justice Department seizing their churches or universities. For instance, a progressive Justice Department could use forfeiture to seize property from organizations that refuse to recognize gay marriage or deny Climate Change.

Trump cannot Stop Cultural Socialism

However, the Donald does not realize how quickly they can turn such power against him. To explain, progressives think Trump is a criminal which gives them the pretext to seize his property.

Notably, Martin J. Sheil notes that prosecutors could use forfeiture to seize all the Trump Organization’s assets and all of Trump’s property. In fact, future prosecutors could even seize Trump’s presidential pension leaving the Donald penniless.

In addition, Trump wants unrestrained law enforcement agencies with the power to trample the rights of the lower class. Yet the Donald does not realize such police can quickly turn against him and his allies.

Thus the ridiculous FBI raid on Roger Stone; a harmless old man, could be a sign of things to come. Hence, I believe we could see a federal SWAT team raid Mar-a-Lago in a few years.

Socialism leads to disaster because it creates an all-powerful government that will respect nobody’s rights. However, like most socialists, Trump fails to realize that an all-powerful government can violate his rights as easily as his enemies.

Therefore, Trump is a socialist who will hasten America’s march to socialism not reverse it. Hence, Trump’s election represents the triumph of cultural socialism. Only history will tell if economic socialism will follow Trump’s cultural socialism.