Steve Hilton: Real populism vs fake populism
The 2020 Dems continuously claim that Trump isn't for the people, but the economic growth of the country says otherwise.
Let's start with the big argument at the heart of positive populism. President Trump put it clearly the other week at the rally in Manchester, New Hampshire.
“After years and years of building up other countries we are finally building up our country, standing up for our jobs, our workers, and standing up for our dignity,” he said. “The forgotten men and women of America will never ever be forgotten again. You were forgotten.”
Exactly. Now what's interesting is that Donald Trump has so completely reshaped politics that the 2020 Democrats are trying to copy him by claiming the mantle of populism. They're the real populists, they said at their last debate. Trump "has only helped the rich."
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.: “Donald Trump is part of a corrupt, rigged system that has helped the wealthy and the well-connected and kicked dirt in the faces of everyone else.”
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio: "For the last three years, we've watched Donald Trump pit working people against each other, black versus white, citizen versus immigrant. And why? So that the wealthy and the powerful he represents can hold the American Dream hostage from everyone else."
Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif. : "We’re looking at someone who passed a tax bill benefiting the top 1 percent and the biggest corporations in this country when he said he would help working families."
This is the Democrats' central claim: Donald Trump has broken his promise to help working Americans. He's not a real populist; his policies have only helped the rich.
Honestly, these are lies, lies, lies. Here are the facts, the facts, the facts.
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Between 2016 and 2018, corporate profits rose by $220 billion while workers' earnings went up by almost $1 trillion -- four times more. The Democrats also say Trump is just continuing what Obama started. But the facts show this is a complete lie, too.
Workers' earnings increased by 42 percent more during President Trump's first two years in office than Obama's last two. There was a massive and almost instant jump - a turnaround that has destroyed the left's economic argument because it's a perfect test case of what pro-growth pro-enterprise economics can do.
Yes, it's true that corporate tax cuts and deregulation helped businesses. But who do you think actually creates jobs and pays wages? Helping business is the way you help workers.
Let me explain how it works for the economically-illiterate Democrats and their idiotic stooges in the establishment state media: Lower taxes and less regulation give businesses the confidence to invest. That means more innovation and higher worker productivity. That means more jobs are created, and workers are paid more because they're producing more.
On jobs, the latest report showed 164,000 jobs were added, bringing the labor force to almost 163 million - a new, all-time record. With President Trump, we've seen the lowest unemployment in 50 years, and the lowest on record for African-American and Hispanic workers.
On workers' pay, the latest data on employee compensation showed that earnings rose 4.5 percent in 2017 and 5 percent in 2018, even higher than previously reported and way ahead of inflation.
But the best news is on low-income workers. President Trump is specifically delivering on the promises he made to the forgotten men and women, who in 2016 revolted against an establishment that punished them for decades in the name of elitist dogma, like open borders, free trade, and globalization. In the Trump economy, incomes are rising fastest for the lowest-paid.
Hourly pay growth for the bottom 25 percent has outpaced that of higher earners every month of the Trump presidency. And in blue-collar industries like mining, construction, and transportation, we're seeing wage growth far exceed what we saw under Obama's second term. Plus: with President Trump's revitalization of manufacturing -- which all the establishment experts said was impossible, by the way -- jobs are coming back in numbers we haven't seen for decades. Last year's gain of 264,000 manufacturing jobs was the highest since 1997.
The facts demonstrate conclusively that working Americans are the winners in the Trump economy. Yes, he is the real populist and it's the Democrats who are fake. They want to reverse the Trump tax cuts and deregulation - that would reverse the Trump job gains and rise in earnings.
They want to make energy more expensive - ask President Macron in France what working people think of that. He's still got protests in the streets over green policies that are mild compared to what these Democrats want here. And of course, all of them want a massive expansion in government, paid for by you.
Populism is about power to the people. The left is about taking power away from people and giving it to the government.
That's not just a tax grab, it's a power grab too. That's the deep reason all these Democrats are fake populists. Populism is about power to the people. The left is about taking power away from people and giving it to the government.
But there's one more argument that's a complete lie, and we need to demolish that, too. This one comes not from the left but from the Never Trumpers and the Republican establishment. They say, "Well, Donald Trump may have a good economy, but that's just because of traditional conservative policy. Where he's moved away from Republican orthodoxy, like on trade and China, it's been a disaster."
Again, this is total B.S.
As we keep telling you, tariffs work. They worked on the border with Mexico and are working with China. The way the critics talk, you'd think our entire economy was dependent on China. But remember, in 2018 imports from China were just 2.7 percent of our economy and exports to China just 0.9 percent.
Look, there's no doubt that the trade war with China has introduced economic uncertainty, and that's never a good thing. As we saw this past week, the Democrats and the establishment state media are hyping up a recession because they think it's the best way to get rid of a president they despise.
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Here's what newly-minted Never-Trumper Anthony Scaramucci has been saying to any passing TV camera: "What he's done on the trade situation has totally and completely destabilized the global economy. And forget about the farmers for a second. I'm very sympathetic to them -- it's hurting them. But it's hurting the entire capital market system."
Yeah, forget about the farmers. There you have it. He just gave the game away -- another fake populist. Unbelievably, he actually wrote a book called "The Blue Collar President" and came on "The Next Revolution" to promote it. But now we see which side he's really on - the Wall Street wheeler-dealers in the capital market system who for decades have screwed the American worker to make themselves rich, especially over China.
So it is highly revealing that these elitist globalization ideologues are dumping on Trump just at the moment when his populist trade policies are starting to work. For 50 years, China was moving inexorably towards its stated aim of toppling America as the world's economic and military superpower by 2049, not least by cheating on trade rules and stealing technology. Now, thanks to President Trump, China is reeling.
As a direct result of the Trump tariffs, manufacturers are moving supply chains out of China. This was the foundation of China's rise -- and it's crumbling before our eyes. China's economic growth has slumped to the lowest in nearly 30 years. The establishment critics say that our growth is down, too.
Yes, the latest number was 2.1. percent. But that was higher than anyone expected. And just compare it to what's going on elsewhere in the world. EU growth in the same period was less than half as much - 0.8 percent. And their unemployment rate was 7.5 percent, they thought that was good -- it was down slightly. But it's more than twice as high as ours
The establishment loves to regurgitate their tired talking points about consumers paying for the trade war. But they are idiotically short-sighted. They don't take into account the costs to our society - and our economy - of shipping jobs to China so they can ship cheap products back here.
We had a fantastic debate on this on my Fox Nation show "Deep Dive" last week. Honestly, it's worth signing up to Fox Nation just for this. Here's a clip:
Steve Hilton: The market price of that cheap t-shirt and that cheap TV does not include the devastation of that town in Iowa, which the government and the taxpayers have to pay for in different ways through welfare payments or dealing with opioids, or whatever it is— \
Economist: so we first—
Hilton: Hang on, let me finish. So you’ve got that going on. There’s a huge set of social and economic costs that are not included in the price of that cheap t-shirt. All I’m saying is you include that in the price so it’s a real price. By putting a massive tariff on any t-shirt that is made outside the country, then it is equal. And you might as well make it here because it’s not going to be any cheaper if you import it."
That would be my policy: If you want to sell it in America, you can damn well make it in America.
On China, Here's what I wrote in my book "Positive Populism" last year: "It’s time for a complete economic boycott of China... All U.S. companies in China should pull out, and no new investments should be made."
The establishment just doesn't get the historic geo-strategic turnaround that Trump tariffs are delivering. Here's what to ask the Never Trumpers and the conservative ideologues and the establishment: If you don't like what President Trump is doing on trade, what's your alternative? What's your plan to stop China from cheating us? What's your plan to stop China from beating us?
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These Trump tariffs are the first thing in 50 years that have gotten China's attention, and they are reshaping the global economy to America's advantage. All that would be put at risk of course by this man, Joe Biden.
On the defining issue of our age, the Democrats seem hell-bent on nominating someone for president who is totally compromised by our greatest enemy, China. As we have often shown you, Joe Biden took over a billion dollars in bribes from the authoritarian Chinese regime in the form of payments to Biden family businesses. (#JoeChina)
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In 2016, by contrast, we saw once again the true genius of this country. America elected as president the only person who was prepared to confront its greatest challenge. President Trump is not just the real populist -- he's the really successful populist. Where he's followed traditional conservative economics -- tax cuts and deregulation -- the results have been great, especially for working Americans. But where the president has followed his own instincts -- on trade and China -- the results have been transformational and historic.
That is positive populism in action.
Adapted from Steve Hilton's monologue on "The Next Revolution" on Aug. 25, 2019.