Stephen Moore: “If you liked what Trump did on the economy the first time, you’ll like what he does the second time”

From Peter Coy, in NYT:

 

“If you liked what Trump did on the economy the first time, you’ll like what he does the second time,” Stephen Moore, an unpaid senior economic adviser to the Trump campaign, told me. “He wants to hit the ground running. He feels like the clock is ticking.”

“The difference between Trump and Reagan, and I worked for both, is that Trump is not especially ideological,” Moore said. “Reagan was ideological. Trump is a businessman. When you talk about issues with him, he deals with common sense.”

Moore said Trump doesn’t always act on his threats of raising tariffs, which he uses as leverage “to get other countries to do what is in the U.S. national interest.” By Moore’s theory, tariffs might not be that much higher under Trump than under Biden. Then again, Trump once tweeted, “I am a Tariff Man.”

More prognostications from Stephen Moore. This list does not include Mr. Moore’s February 2024 characterization of the AARP as “the most evil left-wing organizations in America”, on video here.

On tariffs — one of the few economic policies Mr. Trump actually followed through on — CAP has done the following tabulation regarding the tax on imported goods that would come about a 10% tariff on all imported goods.

 

Source: CAP.

 

10 thoughts on “Stephen Moore: “If you liked what Trump did on the economy the first time, you’ll like what he does the second time”

  1. Macroduck

    Moore is unpaid. That suggests that either:

    1) Moore has an agenda, probably associated with a paycheck, which he wants to make part of Trump’s agenda.

    2) Trump is happy to flag Moore’s ideas as acceptable, but sees no reason to pay for Moore’s advice.

    These are not mutually exclusive.

    By the way, these explanations are not particular to Trump’s campaign. They are a part of the political landscape, part of the influence game.

    Reply
    1. pgl

      Let’s never forget that Moore and Laffer wrote Trumponomics: Inside the America First Plan to Revive Our Economy in 2018. Yea it was a worthless rant but it got Moore Trump’s nomination to the FED. Moore was such a bad choice that even Republicans in the Senate rejected this nomination. Moore only plays an economist on TV but in the real world he is one dumb suck up.

      Speaking of agendas – Moore helped write that horrific 2017 tax cut for rich people.

      Reply
  2. pgl

    “His is a new economic populism that combines some conventional Republican ideas–tax cuts, deregulation, more power to the states–with more traditional Democratic issues such as trade protectionism and infrastructure spending.”

    From the Amazon review of that joke of a book by Laffer and Moore. We never got the infrastructure spending but we did get a stupid trade war, tax cuts for rich people, and deregulation that undermined the efforts to curb climate change. Oh wait – Moore is a climate change denier so that makes sense. More power to the sttes is code for the Dobbs agenda. MAGA!

    Reply
    1. Macroduck

      Private, fee-for-service, tax-abated infrastructure. Trump never got past proposing a grift as infrastructure policy. Biden managed hundreds of billions of public-funded, real infrastructure. Takes a lot of gall to say what Moore said, but he’s one big gallstone, so no surprise.

      Reply
  3. James

    Most of Trump’s top advisors are saying Trump is “unfit to be president.” https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2022/06/16/donald-trump-second-presidency-avlon-reality-check-orig.cnn
    Many of the other advisors are in jail, in court or bankrupt
    https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/19/politics/peter-navarro-jail-contempt-of-congress/index.html
    Also I question Mr. Moore’s economic advice – when he says this “Trump is a businessman. When you talk about issues with him, he deals with common sense.” – No – Trump is a proven criminal tax fraud
    https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/06/politics/trump-organization-fraud-trial-verdict/index.html
    You have to wonder when all the “I worked for Saint Reagan-and we need more tax cuts for rich people!” B.S. collapses into the pile of garbage it is built on- I suppose there is a whole lot of money keeping it going.

    Reply
  4. Moses Herzog

    So Stephen Moore, the bum who wouldn’t pay money owed his children after a divorce, thinks Americans should like trump’s destruction of the American economy through bad public health policy during Covid-19?? Should illiterate Americans also embrace trump’s coziness with Putin?? Did Americans enjoy staying at home, their children receiving no public education while donald trump told Americans to “drink bleach”?? Where does this go I wonder??
    https://www.npr.org/2024/04/24/1246780867/eu-parliamentarians-on-the-kremlins-payroll-investigators-say-thats-a-reality

    Illiterate MAGAs say they don’t want to follow European style policies. But isn’t electing Putin’s pet dog donald trump following Europe’s lead??

    Reply
    1. pgl

      This is even worse than you noted:

      https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/stephen-moore-child-labor/

      Conservative economics commentator Stephen Moore, President Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Federal Reserve, withdrew his name from consideration for nomination to the role in early May 2019, after public scrutiny of his past writings and pronouncements.

      Most notably, Moore had disapproved of women’s economic self-sufficiency; suggested that women should not be allowed to officiate at N.C.A.A. events; and made racially charged remarks about slavery, the Civil War and the presidency of Barack Obama.

      One of the many pronouncements in question was highlighted in a 30 April meme posted by the left-leaning Facebook page “The Other 98%.” The meme featured a photograph of Moore along with the following text:

      “Stephen Moore — Trump’s Fed pick — wants kids to be working. ‘I’m a radical on this. I’d get rid of a lot of these child labor laws. I want people starting to work at 11, 12’ … “

      Reply
  5. Gridlock

    Last week, Biden told steelworkers that he’d likely triple the section 301 tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum products if the US trade rep determines China is ‘cheating’.
    Current average tariff on steel and aluminum from China is 7.5%. Tripling it would mean average tariffs of 22.5%.
    Imports of Chinese steel and aluminum are also subject to Section 232 tariffs of 25% and 10%, respectively. Combining the Section 232 tariffs with the increased Section 301 tariffs will yield average tariff rates of around 47.5% for steel products and of around 32.5% for aluminum products.
    While US steel and aluminum producers will be happy, what effect would that have on US inflation?

    Reply
    1. pgl

      “Combining the Section 232 tariffs with the increased Section 301 tariffs will yield average tariff rates of around 47.5% for steel products”

      Are they really additive?

      Reply

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