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President Trump vowed to dismantle President Biden’s legacy, but as prices remain stubbornly high, he has embraced his predecessor’s policies on Medicare drug pricing, semiconductor funding, anti-collusion probes and tapping the oil reserves.
Nearing the two-year mark of his term, Mr. Trump has kept in place the basic architecture of several Biden-era programs, while tweaking their branding, priorities or methods. In some cases, he has gone further than Mr. Biden, giving Washington a more direct stake in private industry, a move foes and allies have derided as “socialism.”
Former Biden administration officials see Mr. Trump’s decision to preserve and, in some cases, expand upon their economic policies as a vindication.
“There has been a realization, though I think [Mr. Trump] will never admit it, that these policies were good and many of them were bipartisan, right before they were kind of attacked as Biden-era policies,” said Alex Jacquez, a Biden White House adviser on economic development and industrial strategy. “Many of these policies have come out of the mainstream of bipartisan thinkers who are concerned about the industrialization and deindustrialization of the country.”
“The Biden administration’s playbook of blindly handing over billions in taxpayer dollars to some of the biggest corporations in the world with zero accountability is unacceptable to President Trump, who is ensuring taxpayers get the best bargain possible and that tax dollars are not wasted on ideological pet projects,” said White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers.
SEE ALSO: Trump’s approval rating falls to 33%, lowest of second term
“President Trump’s strategy is actually delivering results from lower prices of many household essentials to trillions in critical manufacturing investments to historic declines in prescription drug costs.”
It is not unusual for presidents to keep their predecessor’s economic policies even while campaigning against them.
President Clinton harshly criticized President George H. W. Bush’s championing of the NAFTA trade deal during the 1992 presidential election. Mr. Clinton then signed it into law upon taking office in 1993.
Mr. Clinton pushed to get China into the World Trade Organization, a move blasted by President George W. Bush, who later normalized trade relations with China during his administration.
Mr. Biden griped about the tariffs imposed during the first Trump administration, but left them largely unchanged during his four years in office.
This time, Mr. Trump entered office on a mission to erase Mr. Biden’s legacy. By the end of his first year back in the White House, Mr. Trump had reversed 62% of his predecessor’s executive orders.
Source: Read the original article on www.washingtontimes.com
