Loose borders libertarian Trump advisor Stephen Moore is trying to weaken him on free trade

Last month, Donald Trump released lists of the members of his Economic Advisory Council. (He did it in two rounds, and therein lies yet another tale about Trump's incompetence.)

One of those advisors is Stephen Moore, a libertarian from the Heritage Foundation and formerly the Wall Street Journal who supports loose borders and free trade. While Moore isn't as extremist as other libertarians (e.g., Bryan Caplan), that isn't saying much. Libertarian concepts are diametrically opposed to Trump's more "Red Tory" persona. While it's great that Trump listens to people who hold different opinions, no one who truly opposes loose borders and free trade as Trump claims would name Moore an economic advisor.

By naming Moore, Trump is also opening himself up to attacks by Hillary Clinton that would resonate with Trump's base. From [1] (bolding added):

At a [private summer meeting of the Council for National Policy (CNP), a secretive group of powerful conservatives] in Cleveland this summer, Donald Trump's senior economic adviser, Stephen Moore, said the candidate planned to pay for his costly proposals by eliminating the departments of Commerce, Energy and Education; lifting all restrictions on mining, drilling and fracking; ending Temporary Assistance for Needy Families programs, and offering rust-belt factory workers new jobs on oil rigs and steel mills.

...Moore, a senior fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, also described how Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions had "infiltrated" Trump's campaign operation, and how Moore and other supply-side economists were working hard to get Trump to be more supportive of free trade.

[How will Trump pay for his grand plans?] For starters, Moore said, major cabinet-level agencies should be eliminated. (CNP vice president Bill Walton) asked him specifically about eliminating the departments of Commerce, Education and Energy...

"I'm going to press as hard as possible to [eliminate the agencies]," Moore said. "We're putting a budget together right now that is going to not only pay for the tax cut, but balance the budget in six or seven years. And to do that, you've got to make very significant cuts in those kinds of programs.

...In an interview Friday, Moore said he has spoken to Trump about eliminating the Energy Department. "I don't know if he'd shut it down, but there's a good chance the energy subsidies are going to be on the chopping block. I haven't talked to him about the Education Department, so I was speaking for myself. As for Commerce, I call it the department of corporate welfare, and I know Trump has been specific about ending the crony corporate welfare systems."

A spokeswoman for Trump said Moore "is one of many different outside advisors to the campaign, but is speaking on his own behalf."

...Moore's first task for Trump was to devise the candidate's energy policy ahead of a speech Trump gave in North Dakota on May 26. Thanks to Moore, unlimited drilling, fracking and mining has become one of the four pillars of Trump's "Economic Vision."

At the Council for National Policy meeting, Moore reiterated that Trump will lift any and all restrictions on fossil fuel production.

..."We're going to borrow a really good idea from John Kasich," Moore said, referring to transforming the federal social safety net into a system of block grants for individual states. "All these programs, job training, health care, medical services, da da da, we'll just pass all that stuff back to the states."

..."We're also going to do some welfare reform," Moore continued. "We've built an incredible entitlement state, and this kind of victimization, and that's got to end. We're going to go after those programs.

"All you have to do is require employable adults who don't have disabilities to work for their benefits, and you're going to see big changes in the welfare system," Moore said. What he failed to mention was that the majority of people receiving federal anti-poverty benefits are already working, so his plan wouldn't apply to them.

...According to Moore, several of Trump's economic proposals came out of monthly meetings he held with the Trump Leadership Council, which Moore described as "25 or 30 major industry leaders, the men and women who run the great companies in America."

"These are energy companies, transportation companies, telecommunications and tech companies. We meet about once a month with Donald Trump, and he always sits there and each person has about two or three minutes to talk."

Moore continued: "What shocked me about these meetings was listening to these business leaders, and they all said the biggest thing is the regulatory state, and it's just strangling their businesses in every single arena. So the first thing we're going to do about this is have a regulatory freeze. The day he enters office we're just going to put a halt on any new regulations."

"Number two, and you're gonna love this," Moore said, "we are putting together a list, and we need your help on this. If you guys can get us the information, we want to make a list of about 50 to 100 executive orders that Obama has passed that we can repeal on the first day [Trump is] in office. As many of them as we can. With a strike of the pen. That's going to be an injection of performance-enhancing drugs into the economy."

...[Moore] also hinted that voters may not get to see much more of Trump's economic or budget plans before Election Day. "I don't think it would be wise in a presidential campaign to talk too much about what you're going to cut, and get stuck in the weeds," Moore said. "It's a trap, and you make more enemies than you can attract among voters."

Moore said he has been working on tax policy and energy with Trump. "I've made suggestions about what to cut and some program eliminations, and so we'll see.

The "this kind of victimization" hearkens back to Mitt Romney's "47%" comments, something that played a major role in him losing (see the discussion of IAmThe53). The "injection of performance-enhancing drugs into the economy" bit sounds like something a coked-up hedge fund manager would say, and some in Trump's base might look at the supposed PEDs that those in the libertarian orbit have unleashed on the U.S. in other areas: Sam Brownback in Kansas, NAFTA, loose immigration, etc. All were supposed to unleash hope, growth, and opportunity and ended up hurting Trump's base.

If she's smart, and - unlike Trump - Hillary Clinton tends to be smart in the political realm, she'll use Moore to make Trump look bad. She might just use him to increase her turnout, but if she's really smart she'll use him to undercut Trump to his base by correctly pointing out that those like Moore support policies that have harmed Trump's base over the decades.

What Hillary won't do is highlight Moore's stance on free trade and immigration since she and he mostly agree on those issues. That's where you come in. If you oppose free trade and loose immigration, then it's up to you to raise those issues and use them to undercut Moore. Point out to @RealDonaldTrump and his many proxies that if Trump doesn't publicly disavow Moore's policies, you won't vote for him. We need a real alternative to libertarians on vital issues like immigration and trade; if Trump adopts Moore's policies he'd be little better than Hillary on the most important domestic issues the U.S. faces. I realize that's going to be hard to accept for Trump's fan club: they put Trump winning and being able to do whatever he wants ahead of their own best interests and the best interests of the U.S.

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[1] huffingtonpost . com/entry/donald-trump-economic-plan_us_57c9dc5ce4b0e60d31df29ae