Huckster Populism
My nominee for the most misleading and hazardous sentence in American politics: President Trump is a populist. Yes, he loves to sound like a populist. He draws angry lines of division between a nasty, mask-wearing, church-hating, science-worshiping elite and the good, plain folks who support him. But this man who spends a lot of time in a golf cart at his resorts for the ultrarich is about as populist as the people paying his membership dues. It has been widely and correctly observed that Trump is doing all he can to distract attention from his mishandling of the covid-19 crisis. But much of what he’s up to is consistent with a longer-term effort to mask the truth about his presidency: His policies resolutely favor the wealthy and the connected over the working class whose banner he claims to carry. He wants the media and the public to talk about anything except the main story line. He would have us argue incessantly about mask-wearing and pay no attention to reports such as Pro Public...