‘Exit, Stage Left’ Could Be Trump’s Parting Headline

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

“Exit, Stage Left” was the memorably apt cover line on the January 2009 issue of Reason magazine, over a picture of George W. Bush, whose party had just been defeated by Barack Obama and the Democrats after Mr. Bush turned an economic downturn into a crisis by seizing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and AIG.

The Republican Party’s 2008 nominee, Senator McCain, had mounted a losing run for the presidency denouncing “self-interest” and promising to “put an end to the greed that has driven our markets into chaos,” prompting a New York Sun editorial observing, “If not even our leading Republican politicians are going to speak up for markets at this juncture, allow us the opportunity.”

More than a decade later, Republicans are in danger of repeating the same mistake. It’s natural in a general election campaign for politicians to make some moves toward the center to try to capture swing voters. But President Trump, like Messrs. Bush and McCain in 2008, risks moving so far left himself that he undercuts one of his strongest arguments against the Biden Democrats, which is that they are big-government socialists.

Warning signs of Mr. Trump’s move in this direction were already starting to appear last month, with the president’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. In that speech, Trump boasted that he “took on Big Pharma,” over drug pricing, sounding like Senators Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren.

In the same speech, Mr. Trump said, “we will impose tariffs on any company that leaves America to produce jobs overseas.” This, too, is reminiscent of a Warren-Sanders style Reichsfluchtsteuer. Mr. Trump would be better off creating tax structures and other conditions, like rule of law, that attract companies here from other places, rather than trying to trap companies here against their will by imposing punitive taxes on those who leave.

In the weeks following the convention, Mr. Trump has doubled down on what some are describing as a switch to “left wing populist.” On Tuesday, visiting Florida, Mr. Trump announced, “In a few moments, I will sign a presidential order extending the moratorium on offshore drilling on Florida’s Gulf Coast and expanding it to Florida’s Atlantic Coast, as well as the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina.”

What’s the point of electing Republicans if you don’t get offshore oil drilling? If Mr. Trump thinks anyone whose main issue is preventing petroleum extraction is going to vote Republican, he is delusional.

Then there’s Mr. Trump’s antitrust attack on Alphabet, the parent of YouTube and Google. The New York Times reported Justice Department lawyers said Attorney General Barr “wanted to announce the case in September to take credit for action against a powerful tech company under the Trump administration.” Alphabet stock is down about 10% since that news broke, a destruction of roughly $100 billion in value for shareholders of the company, which has a market capitalization of about $1 trillion.

The Times news article observed that “The Google case could also give Mr. Trump and Mr. Barr an election-season achievement on an issue that both Democrats and Republicans see as a major problem: the influence of the biggest tech companies over consumers and the possibility that their business practices have stifled new competitors and hobbled legacy industries like telecom and media.”

The Times is correct that “both Democrats and Republicans” want government action against Google, but only in the New York Times newsroom can destroying $100 billion in stock market value by government action aimed at rescuing a legacy industry like “media” count as “an election-season achievement.”

Having targeted offshore oil drillers, “Big Pharma,” and Google, Mr. Trump is also turning against one sector of the economy that had been unscathed—military contractors. On September 7, Trump said, “I’m not saying the military is in love with me; the soldiers are. The top people in the Pentagon probably aren’t because they want to do nothing but fight wars so that all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs and make the planes and make everything else stay happy.”

In a shrewd Bloomberg column headlined “Trump Channels Noam Chomsky,” Eli Lake observed, “Trump was making a radical argument: that the U.S. military is not a force for peace but is addicted to war. It is the profit motive of defense corporations — not a desire to deter aggressors, protect allies or uphold international law — that has driven decisions to use military force.”

Whatever happened to Trump’s idea of a military parade?

There is still plenty of residual contrast between President Trump and Vice President Biden — on judicial appointments, on the Iran nuclear deal (though Trump has been calling for new negotiations with Iran), on taxes, on school choice, on “cancel culture.” If, though, Trump isn’t careful to present voters with, as Phyllis Schlafly put it, “a choice not an echo,” come January 2021 some clever headline writer will hang over a photo of a one-term President Trump a headline that says “Exit Stage Left.”


The New York Sun

© 2025 The New York Sun Company, LLC. All rights reserved.

Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. The material on this site is protected by copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used.

The New York Sun

Sign in or  Create a free account

or
By continuing you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use