Trump versus Free Markets, late 2016 edition

First in a series tracking Donald Trump’s presidency and its anti-free-market policies.

1. Pence and Trump explicitly criticize free markets. The New York Times.

2. Direct dealing with an individual company: Carrier will not move. The Fiscal Times.

3. Close up parts of the Internet. “We’re losing a lot of people because of the Internet,” Trump said. “We have to go see Bill Gates and a lot of different people that really understand what’s happening. We have to talk to them about, maybe in certain areas, closing that Internet up in some way. Somebody will say, ‘Oh freedom of speech, freedom of speech.’ These are foolish people. We have a lot of foolish people.” CNN.

4. Increase taxes on companies that move abroad. CNBC.

5. Trade is not voluntary cooperation. Instead, “we have to look at it almost as a war, because that’s what’s happened to us.” Business Insider.

6. Direct, unspecified threat to an individual company: “I have respect for Jeff Bezos, but he bought The Washington Post to have political influence, and I gotta tell you, we have a different country than we used to have,” Trump said. “He owns Amazon. He wants political influence so that Amazon will benefit from it. That’s not right. And believe me, if I become president, oh, do they have problems. They’re going to have such problems.” CNBC Now.

7. Increase taxes on imports: “Trump team floats a 10% tariff on imports.” CNN.

For future editions, suggestions welcome of President Trump’s administration’s anti-free-market activities. Please post in the comments section below.

2 thoughts on “Trump versus Free Markets, late 2016 edition”

  1. Nice collection, Stephen. I’m not at all surprised, given all that he’s said both before and after the election. To be fair, though, he also made some remarks favoring free trade–all of which underscores the fact that he has no coherent economic-political philosophy to guide him. From the beginning, although I delighted in his anti politically correct comments and attitude, he always seemed to me to be a little il Duce.

    Happy New Year! (I hope.)

  2. Good list, keeps track of the matter in a comprehensive manner.

    The question remains as to which of the many things Trump has said or hinted he will really follow upon. Some people have suggested (even before election day) that he said what he said just to win votes. Is there a way to know at this stage whether he believes in any of the ideas he threw to the public?

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