Trump: New Dealer?

Donald Trump’s campaign has been unique in how often it defies Republican orthodoxy. He has supported protectionism through tariffs, which contradicts the normal conservative position of supporting free trade. He has criticized the Iraq war, even going so far as to criticize George W. Bush’s wars during the primary debates. He has also repeatedly advocated infrastructure spending, something not typically strongly supported by conservatives. This support for infrastructure spending is especially interesting in light of Ben Carson’s comparison of Trump to President Roosevelt.

Much of Roosevelt’s New Deal was centered around “rebuilding” the country through infrastructure projects, such as the Public Works Administration and Tennessee Valley Authority. This is part of why Carson compared Trump to FDR – Trump has voiced support of rebuilding America through infrastructure spending, particularly emphasizing how broken our roads and bridges are. This is also tied to his criticism of the Iraq war – he has previously commented that we “wasted money in Iraq” while our infrastructure crumbles. This is clearly rhetoric targeting the working class. He is not only discussing jobs programs that would benefit working class Americans, he is using imagery of “building” and “constructing” in a way that is effective to middle class and blue collar workers. This is strange in its disregard for standard Republican doctrine, but Trump is known (and perhaps successful) due to this disregard. He is using a tactic that was successful for a popular Democratic president, and is clearly targeting working class Republican voters in doing so. What constitutes traditional “conservative doctrine” doesn’t matter, nor should it – all that matters is what his constituents like, and they seem to want to rebuild America the way Trump says he does.