MAGA will take your butter and give someone else guns

It’s the new Republican anti-establishment economic populism, you wouldn’t understand:

President Donald Trump on Wednesday said it’s “not possible” for the federal government to fund Medicare, Medicaid and child care costs, arguing that it should be up to the states to “take care” of those programs while the federal government focuses on military spending.

The president’s remarks were delivered to attendees at a private Easter luncheon at the White House, where Trump also accused Democratic-led states of fraud.

He went on to say that he told Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought: “Don’t send any money for day care, because the United States can’t take care of day care. That has to be up to a state. We can’t take care of day care. We’re a big country. We have 50 states. We have all these other people. We’re fighting wars. We can’t take care of day care. You got to let a state take care of day care, and they should pay for it too.”

Later in his remarks, the president added that states would have to raise their taxes to pay for child care costs and that the federal government “could lower our taxes a little bit to them to make up” for it.

“Let them eat upper class tax cuts” remains the most important component of MAGA policy, and if you say “isn’t that just standard-issue Paul Ryan Republicanism?” — hey, you’re getting it!

Don’t worry, though, it’s just that true MAGA has never been tried, and a Peter Thiel podcasting associate has a good friend who will definitely make the Republican Party populist you betcha:

👀 GLENN GREENWALD: “In the Republican Party, there's going to be a major candidate — I am certain. I hope it's Tucker … You know, stranger things have happened.” pic.twitter.com/OwRcfKHMIO— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) March 30, 2026

Trump may be bad for a lot of the economy, but it’s boom times for people guilty of lucrative fraud schemes and wallet inspectors in Rio.