President Donald Trump is facing mounting criticism over abandoning his MAGA base as he turns his focus to foreign issues, dining with billionaires and building his ballroom — not making life more affordable for Americans like he promised.
Trump allies fear the president is "drifting away from his more populist stance," according to a New York Times report published Friday. The president has reportedly eyed attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, a gathering of top business and political leaders.
"Some of his advisers, however, feel such a trip would send the wrong message at a moment when they are trying to recapture a political edge on the economy," The Times reports.
Stephen K. Bannon, Trump's former chief strategist, said he has encouraged the administration to turn its attention to domestic interests and host more Americans in the Oval Office.
“The White House is clearly not the best at selling economic ideas,” Bannon told The Times.
“If you’re going to have the president of Syria, that’s fine,” Bannon said, describing how Trump met with officials from Central Asia, Hungary and Syria while Democrats scored election wins last week. "Next one’s domestic. One Syria, next one’s domestic,” he said.
The president approved a $20 billion bailout for Argentina all while the government remained shut down and Americans lost SNAP benefits and federal workers went unpaid. Some Republicans reportedly asked him to be more involved in the shutdown negotiations.
"For a president who returned to office promising to avoid foreign entanglements, make life more affordable and ensure that available jobs go to American citizens, it has been a significant departure from the expectations of his loyal base. And it is starting to open a rift with his supporters who were counting on a more aggressively populist agenda," The Times reports.
"The divisions within Mr. Trump’s movement, spawned by his own actions, have been only amplified by the latest developments on a story that he has been doing his best to quash: his relationship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein," according to The Times.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has said she would like to talk to the administration about a health care plan and have "nonstop meetings" with the White House about “domestic policy not foreign policy."
Trump argues that America needs to have a good relationship with other countries and the world at-large. His supporters see it differently.
"And while Mr. Trump and his aides have argued that he has successfully secured peace and trade deals overseas that will help Americans in the long run, some of Mr. Trump’s supporters see a break from his 'America First' pledge," The Times reports.
David Lapan, former senior adviser to the under secretary for benefits at the Department of Veterans Affairs, argues that Trump may have fooled his MAGA base to secure his position.
“The messaging before was a means to an end to get elected, but once elected that can all fall by the wayside,” Lapan, who has also worked the Homeland Security Department and the Pentagon, told The Times.
“Now that he’s in office, the mask comes off and it’s all about taking care of himself and fellow billionaires and millionaires,” Lapan said. “He’s an elitist."