Pelosi's "manhood" gibe at the Trumpwall has me thinking: Can we come up with a general typology of Individual-1 policies, classified by motive? I think we can. There are three kinds of Trump policy: McConnell, moolah, and manhood 1/
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) December 12, 2018
McConnell policies are the standard GOP agenda of upward redistribution and deregulation: tax cuts for the rich, undermining the Affordable Care Act, letting polluters pollute. Anyone who thought Trump would be different on these things has been disabused 2/
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) December 12, 2018
Moolah policies are the distinctive things Trump does that seem most likely to be motivated by personal gain -- things like making excuses for murderous dictators who throw business to the Trump Organization. Emoluments seem to be driving a *lot* of foreign policy 3/
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) December 12, 2018
Manhood policies are Trump policies that are about Trump trying to look tough, even when there's no real constituency for his posturing. The wall, obviously; but also Tariff Man protectionism, which has few supporters and the markets hate 4/
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) December 12, 2018
Now, you might think there'd be a fourth category: things that Trump does because they're actually in the national interest. But I can't think of any examples fin/
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) December 12, 2018
I'm not sure about this. One of Krugman's commenters is right, I think:
I like where you're going, but Melanin is surely a fourth.
— Alden Utter (@nedlum) December 12, 2018
I don't think Trump wants the wall just because he regards it as a macho response to unauthorized immigration. I think he's a genuine racist who believes that non-Europeans live in shithole countries and need to be contained so they won't kill or otherwise harm us, violently or by means of the diseases they inevitably spread to us. On that level, I think Trump's hardline immigration policies are, in his mind, "things that Trump does because they're actually in the national interest."
There's also what he learned from mentors, starting with his father -- meanness generally, and specifically, I think, the notion that all counterparties screw you, so you should screw them first. (That's a big reason Trump loves tariffs and always wants to terminate and renegotiate deals made with other countries.)
And there's -- I'm straining for an "m" word here -- methodical predecessor erasure:
There is a “petty” category where Trump does stuff to erase the legacy of his perceived enemies (e.g. Obama and the Clintons)
— Stephen K. Mitchell (@stephenkmitchel) December 12, 2018
Although maybe that's about manhood -- how can Trump be the alpha among alphas if there have been other presidents and they've accomplished stuff?
Beyond that, I'm stumped. Is there anything that doesn't fall into these categories?
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