Zach Wolf
Analysis by Zachary B. Wolf, CNN
(CNN)President Donald Trump isn't known for ideological consistency but his demand of credit for a second multibilllion-dollar bailout of US farmers creates a new level of discord with his attacks on socialism.
On Thursday, the Trump administration released details of a new raft of handouts to US farmers caught in the middle of the President's trade standoff with China.
This is not to criticize the farmers, whose livelihoods are tied to international trade, which Trump has threatened by starting a trade war with China.
It is to point out that days earlier, when Trump claimed credit in a tweet for helping out the farmers, he was seeking praise for an effort to duct-tape a problem that he very much created.
"Farmers are starting to do great again, after 15 years of a downward spiral. The 16 Billion Dollar China 'replacement' money didn't exactly hurt!"
Set aside that the farmers' predicament has been singly created by his nationalist trade policy or that this is the second such relief effort he's had to greenlight (an earlier program totaled $12 billion in payments to farmers).
It is even harder to square his government props for farmers with the demonizing of socialism he has pursued as a campaign tactic, poking at a festering divide in the Democratic Party.
A few days before he was seeking praise for bailing out the farmers, Trump was attacking four lawmakers, all minority women, when he pledged again on Twitter that the US would never be a socialist country.
"We will never be a Socialist or Communist Country. IF YOU ARE NOT HAPPY HERE, YOU CAN LEAVE! It is your choice, and your choice alone. This is about love for America. Certain people HATE our Country ... ," he tweeted.
Certainly, helping farmers is not the first step to socialism. But it is definitely an example of the government doing more to help its citizens, which is the general idea behind a lot of the more socialist tendencies the President has attacked.
More @ source
Analysis by Zachary B. Wolf, CNN
(CNN)President Donald Trump isn't known for ideological consistency but his demand of credit for a second multibilllion-dollar bailout of US farmers creates a new level of discord with his attacks on socialism.
On Thursday, the Trump administration released details of a new raft of handouts to US farmers caught in the middle of the President's trade standoff with China.
This is not to criticize the farmers, whose livelihoods are tied to international trade, which Trump has threatened by starting a trade war with China.
It is to point out that days earlier, when Trump claimed credit in a tweet for helping out the farmers, he was seeking praise for an effort to duct-tape a problem that he very much created.
"Farmers are starting to do great again, after 15 years of a downward spiral. The 16 Billion Dollar China 'replacement' money didn't exactly hurt!"
Set aside that the farmers' predicament has been singly created by his nationalist trade policy or that this is the second such relief effort he's had to greenlight (an earlier program totaled $12 billion in payments to farmers).
It is even harder to square his government props for farmers with the demonizing of socialism he has pursued as a campaign tactic, poking at a festering divide in the Democratic Party.
A few days before he was seeking praise for bailing out the farmers, Trump was attacking four lawmakers, all minority women, when he pledged again on Twitter that the US would never be a socialist country.
"We will never be a Socialist or Communist Country. IF YOU ARE NOT HAPPY HERE, YOU CAN LEAVE! It is your choice, and your choice alone. This is about love for America. Certain people HATE our Country ... ," he tweeted.
Certainly, helping farmers is not the first step to socialism. But it is definitely an example of the government doing more to help its citizens, which is the general idea behind a lot of the more socialist tendencies the President has attacked.
More @ source
