Former President Donald Trump was quick to name-check his predecessor Ronald Reagan in Thursday’s presidential debate against President Joe Biden.
Trump wasted no time in bringing up Reagan, beloved by nearly all old-school Republicans, and others, to seemingly make his case on abortion. The most telling callback on “Morning in America” was the former president’s ever-brief and not-so-surprising exposition of his economic agenda.
The economy, and more, inflationwas the first topic CNN hosts Jake Tapper and Dana Bash addressed during the debate. In the opening lines of the match, Trump repeatedly hammered home President Joe Biden’s comments. economy and called on viewers to recall the pre-pandemic years of his tenure and bring him back to power.
Inflation and tax cuts
Trump has repeatedly described his first term as “the best economy in the history of our country,” pointing to low inflation, but that was before the pandemic. Trump said his administration spent the money necessary to ensure the economy did not fall into another recession, reminiscent of the Great Depression.
Pressed by Biden on the unbalanced nature of its 2017 tax cutswhich has delivered huge savings to the wealthiest segment of the population, Trump, after suggesting that this was the only thing Biden had said correctly so far, responded: “I also gave you the biggest regulatory cuts in history, which is why we got jobs.”
Biden, on the other hand, pointed out that Trump left him an economy in “freefall” before getting it back on its feet, to which Trump of course retorted by claiming that Biden had inherited only near-zero inflation. (Americans routinely cite inflation as the major problem against the country. Concerns about inflation have also recently dampened optimism among business owners. lowest point in a decade.)
Trump’s agenda for a second term closely mirrors his first: more tax cuts, broad deregulation and increased energy production. During his first term, the Trump formula, though adding more than $8 trillion Reducing the U.S. debt ultimately led to low unemployment and decent wage growth, as well as the same low inflation the U.S. had enjoyed since the 1990s. Trump returned to appealing to Americans’ wallets in the final moments of the debate, portraying Biden as a bureaucrat who raises taxes.
“He wants to quadruple your taxes. He wants to quadruple everyone’s taxes,” Trump said, adding, “When we cut taxes…all these companies brought money back into our country,” another exaggeration.
Ronald Reagan: the original MAGA
Unlike Bidenomics, which relies on a number of levers to “build the economy from the bottom up,” Trump’s speech could benefit from its radical simplicity. The call for tax cuts draws on Americans’ general distaste for taxes and bureaucracy, traits that Reagan, the original president, famously exploited to great effect during his two terms in office. By name-checking Reagan, the man who coined the slogan “Make America Great Again,” Trump not only softens MAGA’s slogan, but also aligns himself with one of America’s slogans. most popular presidents in history.
Reagan, who came to power on the back of crippling inflation, fully unleashed the economic trickle-down which dominated the GOP for the next three decades, dismantling the New Deal framework that shaped much of the 20th century. Regan pushed through the biggest tax cuts in U.S. history, simultaneously spurring economic growth, accelerating inequality, and setting the nation on a path to ever-larger peacetime deficits.
In their closing statement, Biden emphasized the need for a fair tax system and said he would continue to fight inflation. Trump returned to the wars, suggesting they never would have happened if he had been president, while again touting his tax cuts and regulations – but if he’s re-elected, he’ll make it all great , Trump said, ending the debate.
