I am not important enough to endorse anyone formally in the 2024 election, and with some 40 million ballots already cast, I don’t expect to influence anyone else’s vote. But as the Washington Examiner’s resident economics columnist who is quite literally paid to offer my opinions and analysis to you, dear readers, I owe it to be transparent about why, for the first time ever, I voted for Donald Trump for president.

In 2016, I simply did not believe Trump was a conservative, and as a debt hawk whose vote didn’t really matter in the indigo state of California, I voted for the only general election candidate committed to entitlement reform: the Libertarian Party nominee, Gary Johnson.