The GOP's economic blunders go much deeper than Trump

President Donald Trump's economic policies, especially tariffs, are drawing strong criticism on both the left and the right, from liberal economists like Paul Krugman and Robert Reich to conservative and libertarian economists known for their admiration for the late Milton Friedman (who viewed steep tariffs as terrible for both businesses and consumers). But according to The New Republic's Michael Tomasky, the GOP's problems with economics go way beyond Trump himself.

Tomasky, in a Monday morning article, argues that Republicans in general are failing to understand key economic concepts.

Tomasky recalls that during his 2024 campaign, Trump promised, "Under the Trump economic plan, we will cut your energy prices in half … We are going to bring energy down by 50 percent, 50 percent, 50 percent within 12 months from January 20, which is the day we go into office."

According to Tomasky, those promises are "relevant to us today on two levels."

"The first is the more obvious: He was lying out his know-you-what without any regard for whether these words would end up being true," Tomasky writes. "They just sounded good at the time, so he said them. Fifty percent in a year … The second level is more interesting — and more damning not only of Trump, but of the entire Republican Party and of conservatism generally, in this country and across the world, and not just in Trump's second term, but for all time. And that is this: There is probably some way in which Trump actually believed he could lower energy prices — maybe not by 50 percent in a year, but lower them substantially and noticeably. Why would he believe this? He believed it because conservatives believe stupid, simplistic things about how the capitalist economy works."

Tomasky continues, "They believe that if you just let the free market do its thing, wonders will arise and all will be well. They believe this first and foremost because their big-money donors believe it. But they also believe it because the economists — or more precisely, the economists they prefer to listen to — say so, and they must know what they're talking about."

According to Tomasky, a "new generation of economists … have seen with their own two eyes that markets do not always self-correct" and now realize that "sometimes, government intervention is required to achieve good ends."

"In the midterm campaign," Tomasky writes, "Democrats are understandably focused on attacking Trump for his lies and making these higher prices we're paying all about him. That makes political sense … But longer term, the Democrats need to do much more. It would be great if they nominated a presidential candidate in 2028 who had the guts and the rhetorical skill to indict not just Trump, but conservatism and traditional economics more generally. It's not an accident that the last three, now four, GOP presidents have wrecked the economy: Bush, Bush, Trump, and Trump."