YEAH, THAT'LL WORK: DEFEATING TRUMP BY BEING PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE (BUT WITHOUT THE AGGRESSIVE PART)

Politico reports that Democratic progressives have a totally foolproof plan for fighting Trump in his second term:

Progressive Democrats wrestling with how to navigate a second Donald Trump presidency are settling on a new approach: Take his populist, working-class proposals at his word — or at least pretend to.

If he succeeds, they can take some credit for bringing him to the table. If he doesn’t, they can bash him for it.

For instance?

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said in an interview that she would likely work with Trump if he pursues antitrust promises he made on the campaign trail. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said he sees himself partnering with Trump to tackle “large corporate consolidations,” while Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) posted on X that he “looked forward” to Trump “fulfilling his promise” to cap credit card interest rates.

Even Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) ... is finding common cause with the president-elect.

“President Trump announced during his campaign that he intended to put a 10 percent interest rate cap on consumer credit,” Warren told POLITICO. “Bring it on.”

Did Trump make a lot of "antitrust promises" or complain about “large corporate consolidations” on the campaign trail? If so, it's news to me. In October he talked about not breaking up Google. He's expected to fire Lina Khan, President Biden's antitrust enforcer at the Federal Trade Commission.

It's true that he said in September,

“While working Americans catch up, we’re going to put a temporary cap on credit card interest rates. We’re going to cap it at around 10 percent. We can’t let them make 25 and 30 percent.”

But what benefit is there in passively waiting for Trump to make good on this promise? Most voters are unlikely to remember it. It was a much less prominent part of his campaign than his promises to deport all undocumented immigrants or end the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.

Want to try holding Trump to this promise? Introduce a bill to lower credit card interest rates -- and put Trump's name on it.

Sanders and Warren should write a bill limit credit card interest rates and call it the Donald Trump Credit Card Sanity Act. They should put Trump's September quote in a "Whereas" paragraph at the beginning of the bill. They should dare him to oppose a bill with his name on it. Dare Senate Republicans to oppose a bill named after him.

I know, I know -- most mainstream economists, across the political spectrum, oppose limits on credit card fees, because they make it less likely that banks will offer cards to poorer people. Last year, when Senator Josh Hawley, of all people, introduced a bill to limit credit card interest rates, the bill went nowhere and had no co-sponsors, not even Sanders or Warren.

But if you want to make the point, don't sit around waiting for Trump not to act. Actively hold him to his word, and do it in an attention-getting, headline-grabbing way.