Apr 7, 2025 By Kent James 5 min read

Donald Trump campaigned as a populist, vowing to raise up “the forgotten man.” This message allowed him to win a surprising amount of support from the working class. Unfortunately, it was a con.

Trump’s actions in the first two months of his new administration have demonstrated that he is only interested in promoting the interests of the wealthiest Americans. He first made that clear when he stocked his government with 16 billionaires and gave the three wealthiest men in America (Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg) premiere spots at his inauguration.

Unions have been the most powerful force in helping working people achieve good wages, benefits and job conditions. For that reason, wealthy business owners seek to weaken them at every turn. Trump did his part by illegally firing Gwynne Wilcox from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The NLRB makes sure unions are able to negotiate with businesses on fair terms, but by firing Wilcox, he’s hamstrung the NLRB (it now lacks a quorum, so it can’t decide any cases). Taking advantage of this blow to labor, Bezos is arguing the lack of a quorum negates the action of the Philadelphia Whole Foods’ employees who joined the UFCW (food workers union).

Trump thinks striking workers should be fired. Trump changed the rules about who qualifies for overtime pay by making it easier for corporations to exploit workers by putting them on a low salary and forcing them to work long hours without being eligible for overtime. Trump also moved to end collective bargaining for government employees who are employed in agencies that are involved with national security (Departments of State, Defense, Veterans Affairs, Energy, Health and Human Services, Treasury, Justice, Commerce and part of Homeland Security). Ending collective bargaining weakens workers.

Trump fired Lina Khan at the Federal Trade Commission, which is another anti-populist move. Khan had aggressively worked to break up the largest companies so they could not abuse their monopoly-like positions to earn excessive profits at the expense of workers and consumers. The first populists were farmers who fought back against the abusive practices of the time (primarily the railroads and grain elevator operators). Trump protects the interests of the corporations and his big donors.

Trump is also trying to eliminate the Federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (FCFPB), which since its inception has forced companies who’ve exploited consumers to return to them almost $20 billion. The Republicans in the House and Senate both passed legislation that eliminated the FCFPB imposed $5 limit on overdraft charges, which will allow banks to once again profit from excessive fees. Populists protect workers and consumers from rapacious corporations; Trump is siding with the corporations.

Of course one of Trump’s main campaign pledges, and one that probably won him the election, was his pledge to tame inflation. By the end of Joe Biden’s term, inflation was under 3%, close to the 2% Fed target, but prices remained elevated from the earlier bouts of inflation. Even before he took office Trump backpedaled from his promise to lower inflation on “day one,” now claiming that controlling inflation would be difficult. Even worse, he has actively pursued policies that are inflationary.

Trump’s tariffs raise the price on everything, and they are essentially a regressive tax (since lower-income consumers spend more of their income on goods affected by the tariffs). While tariffs might be used to protect domestic manufacturing, Trump’s erratic behavior on tariffs, claiming to impose them only to back down, or exempt some items, make planning investment in tariff-affected industries impossible. What investor will build a factory in the United States because a Trump tariff is protecting that factory’s product when Trump will likely reduce the tariff before the factory is even finished being built? Manufacturing is a capital-intensive industry that requires a long-term horizon, and Trump has proven himself to be unable to maintain consistent tariff policies.

What would a populist agenda look like? It would end tax cuts for the wealthy, eliminate the carried-interest loophole (that allows hedge fund managers to pay lower tax rates than low-wage workers), strengthen the growth of unions (using the NLRB to limit companies’ anti-union tactics), overturn the 1947 Taft Hartley Act (and end “right to work [for less]” laws), enhance consumer protections, pass Medicare for all, and not allow medical bills to ruin credit ratings. It might include lowering drug prices and preventing banks from charging excessive fees.

Overturning Citizens United would make it harder for the rich to buy political influence; a generous child tax credit would help working families raise children (as would universal chil care), and a livable minimum wage would force employers to provide sustainable jobs.

In short, there are a whole slew of possibilities; it’s disappointing that the Trump administration can’t seem to promote any policies that help the little guy instead of corporations and the wealthy.

The Democrats should propose a bill that includes policies that focus on helping the working class and ask the new “pro-worker” Republican Party to join them.

Kent James is a resident of East Washington and has a doctorate in history and policy from Carnegie Mellon University.