Who is to “blame” for the rise of Donald Trump? It’s a question that pundits across the ideological spectrum have been attempting to answer for months. And now the pontificator in chief, Barack Obama, has weighed in with his own theory of the real estate tycoon’s political success.
According to Politico, while addressing donors in California last week, Obama asserted that Trump is simply a more charismatic embodiment of the congressional opposition he has faced from Tea Party conservatives and their House Freedom Caucus since 2011. Trump has been “saying the same things that these members of the Freedom Caucus in the House have been saying for years,” he said, “In fact, that’s where Trump got it. … He said, ‘You know what? I can deliver this message with more flair, with more panache.'”
This analysis is so nonsensical that one wonders whether Obama has ever listened to either the House Freedom Caucus or Donald Trump – or whether his understanding of the Republican party is limited to what he learns while watching John Oliver’s show.
The House Freedom Caucus’s mission statement declares that it supports “open, accountable and limited government, the Constitution and the rule of law, and policies that promote the liberty, safety and prosperity of all Americans.” Needless to say, whatever the virtues of Trump may be, his is not a campaign based on either limited government, nor fealty to the Constitution. Tactically, meanwhile, the House Freedom Caucus has made blocking President Obama’s agenda in Congress its mission. It’s not exactly eager to cut deals or negotiate – indeed, many in the caucus view any compromises at all as tantamount to “surrender.”
Trump, on the other hand, almost exactly the opposite. He talks up his negotiating skills constantly. He wants to cut deals, not obstruct. (Indeed, one of the reasons that so many conservatives oppose Trump is that they fear that he is all-too-eager to negotiate agreements with the likes of Nancy Pelosi et al.) And as far as his similarities with the House Freedom Caucus goes – well, as one writer has noted, Trump almost never uses the rhetoric of “freedom” or “liberty” while campaigning. Contrary to Obama’s baffling remarks, what makes Trump so notable is that he’s so different from most Congressional Republicans.
President Obama certainly has understandable reasons for disliking Trump, as well as the House Freedom Caucus, which has stymied his agenda. But it seems that, in his mind, because they have both been hard on him – though for entirely different reasons – Trump and the House Freedom Caucus are one and the same. Of course, by this logic, Cornel West is now a dues-paying member of the House Freedom Caucus, as well.
