If Trump is the heir to Reagan, American conservatism is truly dead

The president terminated trade talks with Canada over a supposed slur on the icon of American conservatism’s legacy – but, says Michael Day, it’s Trump who is trashing Reagan’s reputation with a venality so blatant the media has largely grown bored of talking about it

As thin-skinned as ever, Donald Trump has taken umbrage at Canada’s province of Ontario, for faithfully quoting his Republican predecessor Ronald Reagan, an icon of US conservatism, as saying tariffs “hurt every American”.

Trump will never pass up the chance to beat his chest and throw shade on anyone who dares to cross him. In response, he thundered that the quotation was “FAKE” and “egregious”. He added that trade talks with Canada were “HEREBY TERMINATED”. Trump had already slapped a 35 per cent tariff on many Canadian imports.

Whatever Trump says, in his 1987 speech, Reagan noted “the way to prosperity for all nations is rejecting protectionist legislation and promoting free and fair competition”. He would be aghast at Trump’s crude protectionism. Indeed, Reagan would be spinning in his grave because Trump trashes much of what conservatives have held dear.

‘American primacy was built on the very things Trump is dismantling, first among them, the rule of law’ (Reuters)

All American conservatives should be horrified. But where are they? How can a country that rose to global dominance on its commitment to free markets and the rule of law have so few real conservatives ready to speak out in its hour of need?

American primacy was built on the very things Trump is dismantling, first among them, the rule of law. Respect for the rules has, historically, encouraged foreign companies to invest in the US with confidence: business contracts and property rights will be honoured, and enforced by an impartial judiciary.

But Trump and his team are acting like the worst leftist regimes. Masked government agents are wrongly abducting South Korean workers and inhumanely jailing them, before releasing and deporting them. Its highest tribunal, an absurdly politicised Supreme Court, appears ready to rubber stamp nearly any appeal Trump puts before it.

Even worse, Trump is using the government to target his enemies. Presidential revenge is not the function of the US Department of Justice. But the contrived indictments of ex-FBI chief James Comey, conservative critic John Bolton, and a growing list of prosecutors who’ve tried to hold Trump to account show that Trump no longer feels the need to hide his abuses.

As well as breaking the law, Trump wields it like a cosh in the way that his mentor, the mob lawyer Roy Cohn, taught him: delay, threaten, bully and distract attention – from Trump’s once close friendship with the paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, and the presumption he was named in the Epstein files. Is any of this evoking conservative values to you?

The presence of GOP sycophants or nativist goons backing Trump as they seek to advance their own careers, or their social and religious agenda, and create “us versus them mentality”, scarring US political discourse, is not surprising.

More surprising, or shocking, is how the overwhelming number of mainstream Republicans, the Mitch McConnells and Lindsey Grahams, appear prepared to look the other way.

Any conservative who doesn’t speak up now will not emerge on the other side – if indeed Trump and Maga is a passing phase – untainted.

The GOP grandees’ silence would in part be explained if the 47th US president were promoting the sort of fiscal prudence they espouse. Instead, Trump’s tax cuts for millionaires will add $2.4 trillion to the deficit over 10 years.

Trump had already increased the US national debt by $8.4 trillion in his first term. He is hamstringing global export trade and raising prices for US consumers by inflicting enormous tariffs, plucked from the air, on friend and foe alike.

American GDP has been turbocharged by its preeminence in science, medicine and technology. But Trump is undermining America’s world-leading universities and federal biomedical research agencies. The announcement of a $100k charge for H-1B visas will scare off the educated talent it needs from countries like India for its digital technology sector.

What would Reagan think of Trump’s supine relationship with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin? We can imagine.

Political conservatives value freedom of speech. This is an area in which, with good reason, they have previously attacked left-wing opponents. Freedom of speech, by definition, means allowing people to speak, whether or not you agree with them. So why is there so little conservative concern about Trump’s successful attacks on freedom of expression, and his nobbling of the media, as well as law firms and public bodies?

The level of corruption shown by Trump and Co – from trade in digital currency to property and hospitality deals – is staggering. According to Forbes, the Trump clan has doubled its net worth since the election last year, and is now worth an estimated $10bn; the venality is so blatant, the media has largely grown bored of talking about it.

Trump’s assault on decency and common sense is relentless. But the sense of cognitive dissonance rarely dissipates as you repeat to yourself: “This is the leader of the free world.” Egged on by his health secretary and conspiracy theorist Robert Kennedy Jnr, Trump falsely claimed that maternal use of paracetamol caused autism. He’s told the world’s diplomats at the UN that global warming is a “con”. Trump’s disdain for experts whose informed opinions he doesn’t like is anathema to real conservatives.

Conservatives value free and fair elections. We know from experience that Trump only respects poll results when he wins. The furious gerrymandering going on in states like Texas will, his acolytes hope, ensure that he, or his chosen successor, wins next time around. They may well do, and claim another victory for conservative America. But Trump is not like Reagan or other conservatives.

And a giant banana republic is not an example of good conservative governance. Trump’s attempt to convince the American public otherwise will ultimately fail – or bring America down with it.