'Market economics': Conservative torches Trump for making 'socialism' appealing

Although Donald Trump ran as an economic populist in all four of his presidential campaigns — 2000, 2016, 2020 and 2024 — he often rails against "socialism" and has declared, in his speeches, that the United States "will never be a socialist country." Trump is now attacking New York State Rep. Zohran Mamdani, New York City's Democratic mayoral nominee, as a "communist" — which Mamdani's supporters say is wildly inaccurate, as Mamdani identifies as a "democratic socialist" but isn't a proponent of Marxist-Leninist or Maoist ideology.

Never Trump conservative David Frum, in an article published by The Atlantic on July 27, argues that Trump is hurting, not helping, free enterprise by pushing blatant cronyism during his second presidency.

"Growing numbers of Americans feel that the economy does not work for them," Frum's article observes. "Donald Trump's stewardship has blatantly favored insiders and cronies. And so, in the 2020s, Americans find themselves debating ideas that once seemed dead and dusty, and in some cases, electing politicians who champion them. The new socialism addresses the problems that wrecked the old socialism only by denying or ignoring them."

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Frum continues, "If socialism is to be beaten back, and if market economics are to uphold themselves in democratic competition, exposing the unworkability of proposed alternatives won't be enough. It will be necessary to reform and cleanse the market economics indispensable to sustaining Americans' standard of living."

Frum, a speechwriter for President George W. Bush during the 2000s, stresses that the Great Recession brought about a time of "radicalism" that continues in 2025.

"From 1983 to 2007," Frum observes, "the proportion of Americans satisfied with 'the way things are going in the U.S.' reached peaks of about 70 percent, and was often above 50 percent. Then, the long period of stability abruptly ended. Over the 15 years from 2007 to 2022, the U.S. economy suffered the Great Recession, the coronavirus pandemic, and post-pandemic inflation — a sequence of bewildering shocks. You can see the effects in the Gallup polling."

Frum continues, "Over this period, the percentage of Americans who described themselves as generally satisfied rarely exceeded one-third and often hovered at about a quarter. The era of moderation yielded to a time of radicalism: Occupy Wall Street, the Tea Party movement, 'birtherism,' the wave of militant ideology that acquired the shorthand, 'woke.'"

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Trump's cronyism, Frum laments, is making proponents of "socialism" feel "vindicated."

"Goodbye to Reagan-era enthusiasm for markets and trade: Trump vowed much more aggressive and intrusive government action to protect American businesses and workers from global competition," Frum explains. "He also offered a bleak diagnosis of America’s condition, for which the only way forward was to return to the past. At the same time, Trump's persona vindicated every critique Sanders might advance about the decadence of late capitalism. Here was a putative billionaire whose business methods involved cheating customers and bilking suppliers."

The Never Trump conservative continues, "His private life was one scandal after another, and he spent his money on garish and gimcrack displays. He staffed his administration with plutocrats flagrantly disdainful of the travails of ordinary people, and with grifters who liked to live high on public expense. The coronavirus pandemic intensified the anti-market feeling."

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David Frum's full article for The Atlantic is available at this link (subscription required).