Is Donald Trump a RINO?
By Dr. Harold A. Black
blackh@knoxfocus.com
haroldblackphd.com
Yes, Trump is a RINO. No self-respecting Republican would impose these tariffs, order a cut to prescription drug prices, suggest a millionaire tax and threaten businesses for having to raise prices because of his tariffs. A Republican who imposes tariffs, wants to fix prices and increase taxes? Say it isn’t so.
I don’t understand the president’s executive order for drug pricing, saying that it will reduce drug prices “almost immediately, by 30% to 80%.” The order only affects drugs covered by Medicare Part B for doctor’s office visits. If his “cut” only covers those drugs covered by Medicare and given in an office but not at the pharmacy, then how will citizens see any savings? Would this mean fewer drugs for Medicare? There are 270 drug shortages in the U.S., and the tariffs coupled with the cut in prices may mean more.
The president keeps talking about increasing taxes for people making over $2.5 million. This would raise only $8.2 billion this year. Did we elect Bernie Sanders? The president is also considering ending a provision that allows hedge-fund and private-equity managers to pay lower tax rates. Hallelujah, I am 100 percent for this! Currently, hedge fund managers share in the profits of the fund, and those profits are taxed as carried interest at 20% rather than the 37% if it were considered as ordinary income. Close that loophole, Mr. President. Of course, with Scott Bessent and Howard Lutnick in the Cabinet, don’t look for a lot of support from them.
The president has also warned the automobile companies and Walmart not to raise prices. I wonder if Trump would try to use an executive order to prevent prices from being increased to the consumer? As to Walmart, the president posted: “Walmart should STOP trying to blame Tariffs as the reason for raising prices throughout the chain. Walmart made BILLIONS OF DOLLARS last year, far more than expected. Between Walmart and China they should, as is said, ‘EAT THE TARIFFS,’ and not charge valued customers ANYTHING. I’ll be watching, and so will your customers!!!”
So, Big Brother Trump will be watching? Didn’t the Democrats threaten to investigate the food industry for the high prices that their policies created? So, we now have Big Brother Trump on one side and Big Brother Democrat on the other without a dime’s worth of difference with regards to price controls. More evidence that this president is a RINO is his threat to impose a 25% tariff on iPhones if Apple doesn’t manufacture them in this country. Has a president ever picked on one product before? Certainly not a conservative president. Recall the words of G. K. Chesterton: “The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of Conservatives is to prevent mistakes from being corrected.”
Trump is his own person and demands fealty to him and not to the party’s principles. Loyalty to Trump supersedes party loyalty. The Senate voted to take away his power to unilaterally enact tariffs. Naturally, all the Democrats voted for the bill, but although many Republican senators criticized the tariffs, only four Republicans dared vote against the president. They were Rand Paul, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins and Mitch McConnell. Naturally, the president posted: “To the people of the Great States of Kentucky, Alaska, and Maine, please contact these Senators and get them to FINALLY adhere to Republican Values and Ideals. They have been extremely difficult to deal with and, unbelievably disloyal to hardworking Majority Leader John Thune, and the Republican Party itself.”
No, Mr. President, those four are the ones adhering to Republican values and ideals, not you. Although the president calls anyone who disagrees with him a RINO, he is making up his own definitions like the progressives do. The president’s values have been called “popularist” because they are certainly not Republican values. So if the president persists in calling himself a Republican, then it is only fair to call him a RINO.
