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Trump, a ‘Normie’ Republican?
A columnist suggests Trump’s policies align with traditional GOP agendas.
- Columnist argues Trump governed as a typical Republican.
- Trump’s policies, like the 2017 tax cuts, benefited the wealthy.
- Foreign policy decisions, such as the Iran strike, echoed past Republican actions.
According to one opinion piece, President Donald Trump, despite his populist image, acted as a “normie Republican,” with policies reflecting traditional Republican values.
Bouie argued that Trump’s policies and actions while in office show that he is more of an “orthodox” Republican than his rhetoric may suggest. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Challenging the “Unique” Narrative
Jamelle Bouie, a New York Times opinion columnist, argued on Wednesday that President Trump is more of a “normie Republican” than many believe. His opinion piece, “Face It. Trump Is a Normie Republican,” claims Trump governed as a “mostly orthodox Republican” and likened his first term to a hypothetical third term for George W. Bush.
“Perhaps the most underappreciated fact about President Trump is that he is a Republican,” Bouie stated. He noted that many see Trump as defying traditional categorization.
The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
Bouie challenges the idea that Trump isn’t a typical Republican. He argues the “most salient detail” is that Trump is a “Republican politician committed to the success of the Republican Party and its ideological vision.”
He points to the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act as an example. “Was this his promised transformation of the American economy, the populist blow for those Americans left behind by the nation’s failed political and economic leadership?” he questioned. “No, it was a massive upper-income tax cut designed to pay huge benefits to the wealthiest Americans, including the president, his family and their friends.”
Echoes of George W. Bush
Listing other actions, Bouie concludes, “Trump governed like a Republican.”
“And it is not a stretch to say that much of his first term was, on the domestic front, more or less indistinguishable from a hypothetical third term for the previous Republican president, George W. Bush. Trump even ended his term, as Bush did, with a rolling set of crises and disasters, each exacerbated by his mismanagement,” he added.
The columnist compared Trump’s foreign and domestic policy to former President George W. Bush. (Chip Somodevilla/Pool via Bloomberg)
Foreign Policy Similarities
Bouie suggests Trump’s “big, beautiful, bill” aligns with “what any Republican president would do,” masked by “the rhetoric of populism.”
As for foreign policy, Bouie notes Trump’s recent strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. He argues it mirrors the foreign policy of past Republican presidents.
“With one decision, Trump fulfilled the dreams of a generation of Republican hawks who have been clamoring for war with — and regime change in — Iran since President Bush proclaimed that it was a member of the ‘axis of evil’ in 2002. You could, if you were so inclined, draw a straight line from that speech to John McCain’s ‘bomb Iran’ quips in 2007 to Trump’s appointment of Mike Pompeo, a noted Iran antagonist, as secretary of state in 2018 to his airstrike last month,” he claimed.
A Republican in the White House
**So, was Donald Trump just a typical Republican president?** The columnist concludes that while some aspects of Trump’s administration stemmed from his and his allies’ “specific authoritarian vision,” much of it is “simply what happens when you elect a Republican to the White House.”
