January 17, 2018 Forgetting the Forgotten: 101 Ways Donald Trump Has Betrayed his Populist Agenda

By Alan Zibel

Share Facebook

Twitter

Email

Last we checked, handing over our government to giant corporations and Republican mega-donors was not part of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

Unfortunately, it has been a defining feature of his administration.

Trump has often said he would govern for the benefit of the middle class. In his postelection victory speech and inaugural address nearly one year ago, Trump claimed that “the forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer.”

More recently, Trump blurted out the truth about which interests he actually represents. “You all just got a lot richer,” Trump told friends at a holiday dinner at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, where the initiation fee is $200,000.

Trump was bragging about the giant tax cuts for big corporations and wealthy people he had signed into law that morning. But he could have been referring to any number of deregulatory moves and giveaways his administration has enacted on behalf of the super-rich – from tax breaks for families who send their kids to private school to cutbacks on worker safety protections.

The sad reality is that decision after decision by the Trump administration will benefit ultra-rich elites — at the expense of everyday American families. It’s all a stark betrayal of the populist promises Trump made as a candidate.

Much like other populist plutocrats who have come to power around the world, Trump used anti-elite rhetoric to gain office, then performed an about-face to govern for the benefit of the very elites he derided as a candidate.

We chronicled 101 examples of how Trump has contradicted his campaign’s populist agenda and betrayed the interests of his own supporters:

CORPORATE TIES