'Chaos and cruelty': GOP economist takes a hatchet to Trump's RNC platform

Brian Riedl, a conservative who was once the chief economist for Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), does not think much of the Republican Party's 2024 platform.

Writing in the Washington Post, Riedl argued that Trump's platform is "economically incoherent and not remotely conservative," and he takes the GOP to task for not even mentioning the nation's budget deficit, which he says would only be made worse by the platform's calls for expanded tax cuts and higher military spending.

Riedl also mocks plans in the platform to fund an Israeli-style "Iron Dome" missile shield that he argues "would surely come in handy if Canada or Mexico were ever to launch a small number of low-flying missiles into the United States."

Riedl also doesn't think much of the party's plans for immigration.

"While tighter immigration controls are worthy of debate, the platform’s 'Largest Deportation Program in American History' approach of undertaking a door-to-door roundup of up to 20 million illegal immigrants is totally infeasible and would lead only to chaos and cruelty," he notes.

ALSO READ: Wife of dead rally-goer says she hasn’t heard from Trump

In the end, Riedl says that the GOP's platform is a reflection of the way that the party has been transformed completely over the last eight years.

"Today’s Republican Party rallies around a cult of personality candidate and then tailors its principles to his whims," he warns. "Classic conservative values such as small government, spending restraint, free trade, federalism, American global leadership, pro-life principles, rule of law and especially character-driven leadership have all been abandoned or weakened in this GOP platform."