Checking in on the new Republican populism

Donald Trump told his rich supporters that Democrats have an unfair advantage because they support labor and Social Security:

Mr. Trump’s comments about welfare to wealthy donors at the event called to mind remarks caught on tape by Mitt Romney during his 2012 presidential run, when he dismissed 47 percent of voters as off-limits because they did not pay taxes.

“When you are Democrat, you start off essentially at 40 percent because you have civil service, you have the unions and you have welfare,” Mr. Trump said on Saturday. “And don’t underestimate welfare. They get welfare to vote, and then they cheat on top of that — they cheat.”

Of course, we don’t have to rely on his private comments — he’s openly running on a plan to massively increase taxes on the lower and middle classes to fund another upper-class tax cut. I would be nice if some of the reporters who helped make inflation an issue that swamped all of the good economic news pointed out that Trump’s across-the-board tariffs would have a huge inflationary effect.

Because Trump accidentally told the truth about something, he had to return to his more typical relationship with facts at other points:

He said that, before his indictment, he was gentler on Mr. Biden, despite the outcome of the 2020 election. “You have to respect the office of the presidency,” Mr. Trump said. “And I never talk to him like this.”

“Lock him up” he probably went on to add.