Since Halloween is around the corner, it is only fitting to open with the nine scariest words in the English language: I’m from the government, and I’m here to help. Or at least that is what former President Ronald Reagan once famously argued. Yet today, his party is ironically no longer spooked by these words; on some level, it appears eager to embrace them.
In our contemporary political climate, it seems as though bitter disagreement engulfs chaotic discussion of every topic one could mention. Buried beneath the headlines, the MAGA movement slowly abandons traditional Republican free market neoliberalism as it converges towards demands for government market intervention—once only promulgated by progressive Democrats.
The Trump administration’s recent compact offering schools, including Vanderbilt, access to preferential research funding underscores this shift towards increasing government intervention in the economy. Amongst the compact’s conditions is the stipulation that higher education institutions freeze tuition for five years. This attempt to force a price ceiling on tuition is a notable shift for a Republican president, as this would have been incongruous for a party once known to prefer leaving price-setting to free markets.
President Trump has also expressed interest in lowering domestic drug costs by implementing a Most Favored Nation policy, which would require pharmaceutical companies to charge Americans no more for medications than the lowest price charged in other developed nations. This is a stark departure from the economic policies of previous Republican presidents, who once believed that increasing competition between pharmaceutical companies is an ideal way of making the prices more affordable.
MAGA-aligned Republicans have also grown receptive to using antitrust policy to target economic injustices in a way that the previous generation of Republicans were not. These efforts have spanned from continuing many Biden-era lawsuits targeting Big Tech companies to Trump’s recent signing of an executive order to target monopolies like Ticketmaster, who exploit their market power to raise ticket prices. Additionally, rising MAGA figures in Congress like Sen. Josh Hawley have gained notoriety for using congressional hearings to criticize airline companies’ price discrimination; they have also brought attention to companies like Visa and Mastercard abusing their monopolistic power to strong-arm small businesses.
In 2023, many congressional Republicans including then-Sen. J.D. Vance supported gradually increasing the minimum wage over time. Though not as high as the $15 minimum wage advocated for by congressional Democrats, the mere openness by MAGA figures to raise the minimum wage at all represents a striking new transition. This is no longer the same party that once sought to eliminate this wage for certain demographics altogether.
Firebrand stars in the MAGA-world, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, have gone as far as to support maintaining Obamacare subsidies because their expiration would lead to premiums doubling for her constituents. Just over a decade ago, the Republican Party spoke aggressively against Obamacare, arguing that removing these subsidies and instead fostering competition between insurance companies would better lower healthcare costs. Greene has also applied MAGA ideology in similar situations to advocate limiting aid to foreign countries, contending that the broader American populace is suffering and should, thus, reap the benefits of financial assistance instead.
The fundamental commonality between all of these examples is an undergirding “America First” ideology that prioritizes the interests of Americans. This is a principle that many progressives, including those like Sen. Bernie Sanders, have attempted to promote, but merely with different visions and extents of how they are to be applied.
The term “America First” is often considered a controversial phrase, and the isolationist implications of it can obfuscate the extent to which the MAGA movement is gaining more common ground with progressives on economic issues than we realize. The earlier attempts at laissez-faire economics promoted in the pre-Trump era failed to improve affordability for Americans. Research has growingly demonstrated that the “American Dream” is becoming unattainable due to increases in the cost of living. This second Trump administration has sought to address this by redefining the way that Republicans view the role of government in the American economy.
The rise of economic populism presents the ripest opportunity yet for both sides to use their common goals to improve the lives of Americans. It is salient that the average American, whether in rural-red Wyoming or urban-blue California is united in their frustration with the current economic direction of our nation. If Republicans and Democrats can move past the noise of day-to-day political chaos and instead prioritize addressing the shared economic concerns of these average Americans, they may realize that the solution is waiting somewhere between their red hats and blue hearts.
