Now that Donald Trump has locked up the Republican nomination for president, he is starting to swerve. The news media is focusing mostly on the fact that he is setting up a national fundraising effort and that he is fine with a super PAC, called Great America PAC, raising money to support him in the fall. This from the man who said, or at least implied, he was going to self-fund his campaign and who said he wasn’t in hock to big money donors, like other candidates.
In doing this, however, he is merely following the example of our current president. In 2008, Barack Obama pledged he would accept public funding for the fall election, along with the associated limits on spending. But then he realized he could raise so much money, if he skipped public financing, that he could swamp John McCain in the general election. So he did it. And then he came up with this silly explanation that he was still doing public financing for his campaign – because it was the public that was contributing the money.
Also, he is backing off the tax cut plan he proposed last fall that would have included tax cuts for everybody, including cuts for the rich. Now, however, he told CNBC, “I am not necessarily a huge fan of that. I am so much more into the middle class, who have just been absolutely forgotten in our country.”
In other words, Mr. Trump is starting to swerve. But he is not swerving to affirm conservative positions, like Speaker of the House Paul Ryan wants to see. Rather, he seems to be going in another direction. The question is whether he is going to keep going and try to pick up some of Bernie Sanders’ supporters. Mr. Trump is already in agreement with them on populist issues like trade agreements and companies allegedly moving jobs overseas. How much more would he need to do to make some of them think he is an acceptable alternative to Hillary Clinton in the fall? That will be the story of the next few months.
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