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Your guide on what Trump’s second term for Washington, Business and the World means
To grasp the true values of a party, study its budget. In this regard, Donald Trump’s Republicans hate science, medical research, disaster victims abroad, food coupons, education for all age groups, health care for poor and clean energy. Everyone is seriously cut. On the other hand, they like the Pentagon, border security, the rich and allegedly those for which the rich leave advice. They have no desire to reduce the American hot air balloon deficit. What Trump wants to adopt is the most anti-black necklace budget in memory. Call that Hunger Games 2025. It is a strange way to repay their voters.
Some Republicans, such as Josh Hawley, the right -wing senator of Missouri, warn That this budget could “end any chance that we are becoming a working class party”. Steve Bannon, Maga’s conceptualize original, says that the Medicaid cuts will harm Trump’s base. “Maga is on Medicaid because there are no excellent jobs in this country,” explains Bannon. Plusocracy still directs Capitol Hill, he adds. This goes against what Trump has promised his base – a balanced budget that has not touched the rights. Indeed, these are the only two tax wishes he made during the campaign.
In practice, the Republicans of the lower chamber wrote a ratherocratic plan. Their bill was temporarily defeated last Friday by a handful of conservative defectors who complained that the project did not reduce the expenses for the poor. They wanted to cut health insurance further and put an end to all the incentives for clean energy. But which against which they voted contains most of their priorities. In addition to the renewed Trump tax reductions, the bill would increase the zero succession tax threshold to $ 30 million for a couple. It would also eliminate the tax on firearms. They are not cuddly people.
On the surface, it seems that Elon Musk has come out, while Bannon is still there. But the rumors of divorce between Trump and Musk are exaggerated. It is more likely that they take a marital break. And to judge by the results so far, the libertarian tax instincts of Musk prevail over that of Bannon.
The two agree on “deconstructing the administrative state”, the original sentence of Bannon which operationalized with its so-called Ministry of Effectiveness of the Government. But Musk is more ruthless in his libertarianism than Bannon is not in his economic populism. Musk thinks that most federal payments are fraudulent and that he and other business titans are victims of the deep state. This is despite the $ 38 billion that its companies have received in federal subsidies and contracts. Trump’s budget is suitable for musk tastes.
Bannon’s blue -collar program, on the other hand, occupies the front of the rhetorical scene with Trump but a rear seat in terms of politics. Bannon and a handful of Maga Republicans are opposed to Trump tax reductions for higher supports. He wants a 40% tax on the highest wages. He also wants to regulate Musk and the other great titans of AI. “A manicure show in Washington DC has more regulations than these four guys running with artificial intelligence,” explains Bannon. But no AI regulations are in sight.
To be fair, part of the Bannon agenda goes ahead. Trump prosecutors serve the meta of Mark Zuckerberg and try to break the alphabet. But difficult colonies could conclude in a Trump Shakedown rather than in Silicon Valley that trusts Bannon. The vice-president, JD Vance, seems to be tidying on the side of the anti-monopolists, but is also a protégé of Peter Thiel, who defends a bizarre form of corporate monarchism. My bet is that any unfavorable decision against Google or Meta would be a transaction opportunity for Trump. He has no coherent opinion on competition policy.
On the main economic problems of America – the inequality and pressure of the middle class – Bannon speaks of a convincing game. But there are two problems. The first is that it is a fan of reducing the Internal Revenue Service, which collects taxes. Little is more pleased more than Trump’s big donors more than the budget that reduces the financing of the IRS. Second, Bannon’s call to Trump to suspend Habeas Corpus so that at least 10 million illegal immigrants can be summarily deported to be more likely at home than its pro-intermediate class economy. Trump agrees with the dark side of Bannon. It renders the lip service in the light.
Of course, whatever the budget that the budget is adopted by the House of Representatives can be changed in the Senate. But any change would probably be marginal. People who share Musk’s interests nourish those of Americans in need in proverbial bombing. Could this potentially divide Maga? At the end of the second hundred days of Trump, we will discover the amount of populist economy counts in Bannon and Co.
edward.luce@ft.com
