Why Do Reagan Conservatives See Trump As FDR Redux?

As the Republican Party continues to fight to stay out of its own way while the Democrats continue to implode, it may be instructive to consider where we might be headed in a post-Trump world. Despite California Governor and all-but-announced presidential candidate “Slick” Newsom’s claim that Trump will seek another term in 2028, that’s just not going to happen. If nothing else, his age of 82 by that time would strongly mitigate against another run, let alone what the Constitution says.

A recent article in National Review harkened back fondly to the days of Reagan, praising his tax cuts, deregulation of key industries, and tough anti-Soviet stance. On those three issues, the biggest difference between Reagan and Trump is the policy vis a vis Russia. While Reagan was pushing back against the Soviets’ ongoing desires to expand their empire beyond the USSR and Warsaw Pact “allies” and their support for communist revolutions everywhere, Trump is simply trying to contain Putin’s desire to re-annex the former Soviet republics, starting, of course, with Ukraine. Yes, there has been some concern expressed that if Putin is allowed to succeed in Ukraine, he may eventually turn toward reconquering the former Warsaw Pact nations, starting with Poland. However, since Putin is having a heck of a time with Ukraine alone, it seems like a stretch to believe he poses a worrisome threat to Eastern Europe. Putting Reagan into this situation, I think it’s hard to say how much differently he’d act than Trump, or even Biden, when it comes to supporting Ukraine with arms and real and threatened sanctions against Russia.

Perhaps part of the “traditional” conservatives’ angst regarding Trump is his shoot-from-the-hip, borderline lawful executive actions on issues that could, arguably, be better left for Congress to approve. But again, Reagan wasn’t afraid to take such actions when he felt they were warranted, such as firing en masse the air traffic controllers when they went on an unauthorized strike. Reagan also believed in a strong border, but, since massive illegal immigration was not occurring on his watch, he was willing to compromise and sign legislation making the road to citizenship easier for immigrants. To compare this to Trump’s approach is apples-to-oranges, since Trump is dealing with a far more extensive problem than Reagan could ever have envisioned.

Although his admirers (and I am one) are often guilty of overlooking this, Reagan was unable to get the avalanche of government spending under control during his two terms in office. This has given Democrats a continuous talking point over the years that Republicans don’t really give a rip about massive federal deficits and debt, since they continue to push “tax cuts for the rich.” If you wish to argue that you have a similar problem with Trump, have at it. The fact remains that in my lifetime, the only Republican in a position of power to do something significant about reducing deficits and bringing the budget under control was Newt Gingrich when he was Speaker of the House in the mid-to-late 1990s. Senators like Rand Paul can rant on about this problem ad infinitum, but they aren’t in a position to do much else about it.

The biggest real difference between Trump and Reagan (beyond the obvious stylistic differences) is in the area of trade. Reagan was a strong advocate of free trade, and his support of this led to eventual passage of NAFTA and other free trade agreements. Trump clearly goes in the opposite direction by seeing “free trade” as a rip-off to the U.S. and therefore imposes tariffs to redress the trade imbalance that he sees as a real threat to our economic security. As for a comparison to FDR on this issue, President Roosevelt moved gradually from full tariff support to a more moderated position that included some free trade, which in his opinion would bolster American exports. Whether FDR’s approach worked will be forever in doubt, since the intervention of the Second World War and our ramped-up industrial machine revived our economy.

So why is Trump being compared to Franklin D. Roosevelt? The only thing that seems to make sense is that FDR tried to impose his will in various situations when he should have asked Congress to pass laws that would support his vision. Trump has relied on numerous executive orders to kickstart his plan for turning America around. Are the two similar in that regard? Yes and no. While Trump is using a similar approach in getting the ball rolling toward recovery, he isn’t interested in creating an expanded role for government, nor does he see government as the solution to our problems, as FDR did, and as the Democratic Party has ever since.

In my opinion, those who favor Reagan and compare Trump to FDR are guilty of at least two things. First, with this viewpoint, they are clouding, once again, the Republican Party’s identity, which has changed mostly for the better in the Trump years. Second, they seem to forget that Reagan once was a card-carrying Democrat until, as he put it, the party left him. So, even in this regard, he and Trump are more similar than different. And, like him or not, Trump’s presidency will go down as perhaps the most consequential since Reagan’s.