Trump
preaches angry nationalism, while practicing Goldman Sachs capitalism
President
Donald Trump's inaugural address was fiery and nationalistic, a
considerable departure from the traditional Republican Party embrace
of the free market and an activist foreign policy. Trump talked of an
“America First” policy and vowed that “January 20th 2017,
will be remembered as the day the people became the rulers of this
nation again.”
But Trump’s
words on the steps of the Capitol bore little resemblance to the
reality of the administration he is building.
It’s hard
to argue with Trump’s assessment that “the establishment
protected itself, but not the citizens of our country. Their
victories have not been your victories; their triumphs have not been
your triumphs.”
But that
establishment will be in full force in the Trump administration. The
megabank Goldman Sachs, famously close to Trump’s opponents in the
Democratic Party, has six alumni posed for key posts in his
administration, including his treasury secretary nominee Steve
Mnuchin.
Trump spoke
of “mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities;
rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape
of our nation,” but Mnuchin built a fortune off of helming
banks that misled borrowers and foreclosed on their homes.
One of Trump
and Mnuchin’s few explicit policy priorities is to slash taxes for
corporations that have stashed money overseas, so that they will
repatriate their profits to the United States. On the surface, this
is to encourage businesses to invest in American jobs. But
corporations are already telling their investors that they’d rather
use this windfall to increase dividends and mergers, not hire more
Americans.
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