Conservative critics of President Trump argued relentlessly during his 16-month presidential bid that it was patently wrong to designate the once-registered Democrat a champion of their cause.
Some of those same individuals felt the president validated their warnings when he stood before a joint session of Congress last week and asked lawmakers for a $1 trillion infrastructure bill, promised to boost paid family-leave benefits and hinted at leaving federal benefits programs alone.
Trump’s hour-long speech was an ode to the populist working-class supporters who helped put him in office, but included headache-inducing ideas for some ultra-conservative lawmakers who spent the last eight years haranguing his predecessor for expanding the scope of government.
“It was an impressive speech and I have no problem admitting that, but look at what he did and didn’t propose,” a congressional staffer, who called Trump “a moderate disguised as a conservative,” told the Washington Examiner hours after his speech.
“He wants massive federal spending on infrastructure coupled with an increase in the government’s child-care generosity, but made no mention of entitlement reform or the kinds of tax cuts he’s considering,” the staffer said.
Trump’s performance on Tuesday landed him praise from congressional Republican leaders and even some left-leaning pundits who took tremendous pleasure in mocking his inaugural address.
House Speaker Paul Ryan called it a “home run,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the president injected a “new spirit of optimism” into the American psyche and Van Jones, a CNN commentator and former special adviser to President Obama, said Trump “became president of the United States” in his speech.
But style and substance are two very different things, and the latter left many conservatives concerned about potential consequences of acquiescing to Trump’s legislative agenda.
“The entire tone of the speech was one that felt like it was written from a liberal perspective, in that greater government involvement was the foundational answer for nearly every problem,” said conservative radio host John Ziegler.
Trump endorsed at least one proposal in his speech that likely left leaders of the conservative Republican Study Committee and House Freedom Caucus reeling. In his five-point plan for healthcare reform, the president appeared to support refundable federal tax credits to offset the cost of health insurance.
“We should help Americans purchase their own coverage, through the use of tax credits and expanded health savings accounts …” he told lawmakers.
Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows blasted the same proposal just hours before Trump’s speech, characterizing it in an interview with CNN as “a new entitlement” and denouncing any growth of “taxpayer-subsidized reimbursements” for costs related to healthcare. Meadows said other members of the caucus shared his concerns.
Similarly, many conservatives remain skeptical of the infrastructure package Trump has vowed to put forward. The president has not yet indicated how much of his $1 trillion plan would come from federal coffers and whether it would add to the deficit. Conservative groups like Club for Growth have long opposed the idea that government spending helps revive the economy.
“Barack Obama’s $1 trillion stimulus package should be called ‘the bucket plan’ because it is no different than taking money out of one side of a bucket and pouring it into the other side and thinking that will raise the water level,” the group had said shortly after Obama introduced his own economic stimulus proposal before being sworn into office.
The question now is whether conservative lawmakers, think tanks and grassroots organizations will condemn Trumpian policies that they oppose or sit silent on the sidelines while the president works with their moderate counterparts to push his agenda through.
“It would be a mistake to prioritize Big Government endeavors over important issues like repealing Obamacare, reforming our regulatory system and expanding domestic energy production,” Dan Holler, a spokesman for the political arm of The Heritage Foundation, told Politico shortly after Trump’s election.
Trump is poised to accomplish what Holler and his conservative base want, but what his administration pursues after that could put him on a collision course with conservative factions of his own party.
