Trump Keeps Blurring the Line Between Capitalism and Socialism - Greg Ip [View all]

President Trump likes to portray himself as the champion of capitalism standing up to the forces of socialism. A frequent target: New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, whom Trump has called a “Communist Lunatic.” Mamdani says he is a democratic socialist, not a communist. More to the point, the lines are blurring between capitalism as practiced by Trump and socialism as advocated by the likes of Mamdani.

On Tuesday, Trump announced the launch of a federal website “TrumpRx” through which the public will be able to buy discounted drugs. This bears echoes of Mamdani’s proposal for city-owned grocery stores.

Trump and Mamdani share a fondness for strong-arming private companies that raise prices. Mamdani wants to freeze rents on New York apartments subject to rent control. Trump just negotiated a deal with Pfizer to lower prices in return for sparing it tariffs on pharmaceutical imports. He regularly berates and threatens companies that raise prices in response to his tariffs.

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But if Trump isn’t pursuing literal socialism, it certainly isn’t free-market capitalism as Republicans once understood it. Republicans attacked the Affordable Care Act as socialism, though what its online marketplace does for health insurance is similar to what TrumpRx purports to do for drugs. Like drug companies, Republicans once opposed Medicare negotiating prices as a form of price control.

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To be clear, Trump isn’t a socialist. He genuinely likes business and has no problem with profits. Yet he has this in common with socialists: He thinks the country runs better when he tells companies and their shareholders what to do.

https://www.wsj.com/economy/trump-keeps-blurring-the-line-between-capitalism-and-socialism-0772d695?st=W1kWRy&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

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