RINOs are claiming that former presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush were better Republicans and conservatives than President Donald Trump, smearing Trump as a “populist.” They think they get away with it by throwing around the populist word constantly — even though 99% of Trump’s views align with Republican principles. I addressed his alleged populist views previously; as with many populist positions, they’re really just fairly standard conservative positions nowadays: strong opposition to illegal immigration, some trade protectionism, and scaling down U.S. military operations overseas.
The establishment GOP points to Trump’s style of talking as populist. But his speaking manner is nothing more than hyperbole, exaggerating things with a sense of humor for effect. That’s not populism. Bringing the working class and blue-collar folks back to the GOP wasn’t populist either; it was a natural fit that the Bushes weren’t effective enough to pull off. Democrats had tricked workers into thinking they were at home in that party due to the unions’ claims of helping them. However, the era of social media has finally exposed to everyone the massive corruption within unions, and hardworking Americans realize much of it was just a facade.
And I would argue that Trump’s rhetoric is evidence of how conservative he is, not how populist he is. The Bushes were much more measured and wouldn’t dare to say the conservative red-meat statements that Trump does. I don’t think MAGA is anything more than just a return to the conservative base dominating the party, just like I didn’t know the Tea Party movement was much more than that. The Tea Party movement didn’t arise solely in response to Barack Obama becoming president — it was also a reaction to years of squishiness in the GOP from the Bushes.
The senior Bush raised taxes despite his “No new taxes” pledge. The younger Bush massively expanded federal spending with Medicare Part D. In contrast, Trump cut taxes with the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Although the second Bush championed tax cuts and deregulation, he also launched “No Child Left Behind,” the massive federal expansion of education — which Trump is now cutting by eliminating as much of the Department of Education as he can without congressional approval. In March, DOGE laid off about 2,000 of the agency’s roughly 4,000 employees through firings, buyouts, and early retirements.
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While Bush defenders claim they were more supportive of free trade than Trump due to Trump’s tariffs, how can you have free trade with other countries when they don’t play pretty, resulting in destroying American manufacturing and jobs? It’s a myth that you can have real free trade with countries that exploit their workers. I covered why Trump’s tariffs were a brilliant move recently.
Trump fixed NAFTA, which had become increasingly unfair to the U.S., revising it into the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) in 2020. The new agreement had stronger labor rules, digital trade clauses, and increased U.S. auto manufacturing requirements.
On foreign and military policy, the younger Bush expanded intervention into the Middle East with his “War on Terror,” which some consider an overall failure. In contrast, Trump kept the U.S. out of wars while leading through strength, with an America First approach that takes aggressive stances like the Soleimani strike. The Bushes were known for their globalist approach, angering many conservatives over their coziness with the Council on Foreign Relations and the United Nations.
Regarding social issues, Trump has come out swinging against the woke agenda, loudly opposing men in women’s spaces, and he appointed SCOTUS justices who overturned Roe v. Wade. While the Bushes pushed back somewhat against the radical LGBT agenda, they were both perceived as soft on social issues. By the time Trump came along, SCOTUS had already legalized gay marriage, and the GOP had moved on from that particular issue. Still, Trump opposes the radical LGBT agenda, with conservative gays in agreement.
Now, Trump does seem to have backed away slightly on the pro-life agenda, stating that he would veto a national ban (which was a throwaway line since there is a zero percent chance Congress would ever ban it). I’m told by insiders that is a result of bad advice from advisors around him; there are still some supposed conservatives in his inner circle who are afraid of the abortion issue. But that could change before his second term is up — no one ever predicted the massive crackdown on illegal immigration that he has launched. His DOJ is now going after state and local officials who oppose his border policies.
This is drastically different than during the Bush era, when illegal immigration measures became so out of favor that as the second Bush administration ended, conservative leaders like Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, who led the most significant efforts there, were hung out to dry and even prosecuted (they were unable to get two grand juries to indict Thomas).
Trump is pursuing the conservative agenda so aggressively that he even rivals President Ronald Reagan. Reagan never dared to cut spending, needing to compromise with Democrats in Congress to get his agenda passed. Trump, on the other hand, created DOGE to make the cuts cleverly through the executive branch instead. Reagan ushered in a guest worker program, the opposite of Trump’s current policy of clamping down on illegal immigration.
Trump is aggressively taking on corruption in the legal system from lawfare and partisan judges. He’s called to impeach some of the worst judges who undermine his work to reform government by issuing nationwide injunctions to block the cuts. He’s even defied some of their orders, such as refusing to return planes flying criminal illegal immigrants to El Salvador when far-left U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg ordered him to. He’s working with Congress on legislation to remove the ability of rogue federal court judges to issue nationwide injunctions.
Maybe it wasn’t clear to some who was more conservative between Trump and the Bushes during Trump’s first term, but his second term has removed all doubt.
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