Here’s a letter to the Wall Street Journal:
Many people are distressed that Donald Trump is failing to assure us that he will refrain from using the power of the presidency to create special privileges for his private companies (“Donald Trump Raises Prospects of Keeping Ties to His Firms,” Nov. 23). Yet in fact, Trump is simply delivering on a key campaign promise.
Central to Trump’s political message is the assertion that prosperity for ordinary Americans requires government creation of special privileges for existing, private firms – special privileges, such as tariffs, that artificially inflate the sales and profits of these firms. (And those who eagerly bought into this message include not only Trump’s supporters but also those who cheered Bernie Sanders and those who voted for Hillary Clinton.) Therefore, if using special privileges to artificially inflate the sales and profits of existing American firms is indeed the key to ‘shared prosperity,’ there’s no reason why Trump should not begin this glorious process of national enrichment by granting special privileges to his own Trump Organization, Inc.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
and
Martha and Nelson Getchell Chair for the Study of Free Market Capitalism at the Mercatus Center
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030
