The conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board took former President Donald Trump to the shed on Thursday evening, pointing out that he has no leg to stand on with fiscal responsibility.
The board used the recent GOP debate as a means to raise the subject to readers.
"The more potent attacks during the debate were on his record as President. Ms. Haley gamely noted that he added $9 trillion to the national debt in four years, 'and we’re all paying the price of that.' Mr. Trump spent like a Democrat on domestic programs, and there’s little reason to think he would show spending restraint during a second term," wrote the board. "He showed no resistance to the $2 trillion Covid blowout in March 2020. He tapped Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds to extend the enhanced unemployment benefits during the summer of 2020 after they had lapsed. He even complained that Congress’s $900 billion Covid spending bill in December 2020 was too stingy."
Indeed, the board noted, it was Trump's original COVID stimulus relief that Democrats saw fit to one-up him on. And moreover, his bona fides on other conservative issues are shaky when you take a closer look, the board said.
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"Mr. Trump’s successes on judges, tax reform and deregulation were based on conventional conservative ideas that were teed up for him. Former Reps. Kevin Brady and Paul Ryan and Sen. Pat Toomey midwifed the 2017 tax reform. Mr. Trump nearly blew up the legislation toward the end when he reportedly dallied with Steve Bannon’s recommendation to raise the top marginal tax rate to 44%," said the report. "The Federalist Society gave Mr. Trump originalist judicial nominees, which Mitch McConnell made sure were confirmed. Deregulation happened thanks to Mike Pence’s guidance and nominees like Neomi Rao at the White House budget office."
A second Trump term, on the other hand, would be different. Trump has many big plans — and some GOP groups are laying out a controversial authoritarian vision — but those who shaped conventional GOP policy in the last administration "aren’t coming back for a second Trump term. Instead the country will get Mr. Bannon and immigration svengali Stephen Miller."
"The danger for Republican voters to consider is that his chaos theory of governance would result in a second term that failed to deliver on his promises and set up the left for huge gains in 2026 and 2028," the board concluded.
