When Donald Trump became president, he was a mystery man. His political beliefs were suspect. He had run as a Republican and often sounded like a conservative. But there were gaps. He opposed free trade, and if he wasn’t an isolationist, he was close. His eagerness to wage a counterattack on illegal immigration, and even on some that’s legal, was extreme.
For Trump, doubts about his conservatism were a serious problem. That he recognized this helps explain why he has spent the past four years moving sharply to the right. Being seen as a conservative was necessary for Trump. Calling himself a “populist” wouldn’t do. Neither would being identified as a “center-right” Republican.
Conservatives dominate the party, and they are protective of their viewpoint. Trump couldn’t be a successful Republican president without the support of conservatives, much less win a second presidential term.
Trump’s effort to transform himself into an unmistakable conservative has been impressive. So much so that you might think he’s done all he needs to. But Trump hasn’t let up. He was still at it, unwrapping new conservative positions, as recently as his White House speech in late August accepting the 2020 Republican presidential nomination.
Before a South Lawn crowd, the president revealed the intensity of his split with China. The United States will “provide tax credits to bring jobs out of China back to America.” This amounts to 1 million jobs, the White House has said.
“Over the next four years, we will make America into the manufacturing superpower of the world,” Trump said. “We will expand ‘opportunity zones,’ bring home our medical supply chain, and we will end our reliance with China once and for all.” Such talk involving China was unprecedented.
Trump also disclosed how much he had persuaded America’s NATO partners to increase their defense payments. “At my strong urging, they agreed to pay $130 billion more a year,” he said. “This will ultimately go up to $400 billion.”
The best examples of Trump’s conservative tilt are the decisions he’s made that presidents of both parties shied away from. Nearly every president promised to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Only Trump did.
And he withdrew the U.S. from the Paris accord without warning or apology. President Barack Obama had joined the group of countries concerned about climate change. Trump saw the accord as idle talk, with the U.S. paying the tab. No other president, Republican or Democrat, would have pulled out.
The same was true for the World Health Organization: America was the biggest funder. But China runs the show, which became clear when the WHO delayed news that the coronavirus pandemic had started in China. Again, only Trump was willing to quit.
And he gets credit for enactment of the Right to Try Act, which had been largely ignored in Congress for years. It allows persons with deadly diseases to volunteer to take unapproved drugs in the hope they’ll work.
Of all Trump’s solo decisions, the boldest was the withdrawal from the nuclear deal with Iran. That agreement, reached by Obama with the notoriously untrustworthy Iranians, would have let them build nukes in a decade or so. Trump had promised in the 2016 campaign to nix the deal. He followed through in 2018.
Trump also delivered a surprise blow to Iran. American intelligence discovered Iran’s terrorist chief Qassem Soleimani was in Iraq — and vulnerable. When Trump was notified, he quickly approved the Iranian be killed. Would another Republican president have acted as Trump did? Not a chance.
The president has been quite as bold in domestic decisions. Perhaps the most famous was his appearance in January 2019 at the annual anti-abortion rally at the U.S. Capitol. Earlier Republican presidents had broadcast pro-life messages. Trump came in person and gave a speech.
Whitney Blake, a former staffer for the Washington Examiner, suggested other Trump actions that fellow presidents wouldn’t have dared. Presidents try to curry favor with the media. But since the press criticizes Trump harshly, he has responded as only a president can. For decades, the White House press corps is invited, with their spouses, to the presidential Christmas party. Trump dropped that practice. And while presidents were expected to speak at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, he was happy to skip that overrated event.
Has all this given Trump a reputation for being a reliable conservative? For the most part, the answer is yes. But there’s more he could do, such as criticize Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and other bad government actors of his ilk. By refusing to zing Putin, Trump is unique among democratic leaders. He likes to be unique, even at his own expense.
Fred Barnes is a Washington Examiner senior columnist.
