Trump; becoming an Emperor
Trump the central planner
MSN by Emily Peck • May 26, 2025
President Trump may paint China as the enemy, but lately he’s been awfully fond of their command-economy playbook.
Why it matters: Trump’s extraordinary interventions — which dovetail with what some critics have labeled “MAGA Maoism” — are rattling businesses, consumers and investors, and throwing global markets into turmoil.
The big picture: Trump has already stretched the power of the presidency to remake the government in his image. Now he’s trying to do the same with Corporate America.
- Trump spooked markets on Friday by threatening Apple with huge financial risk if it doesn’t move iPhone manufacturing to the US — later expanding his threat to Samsung and other phone makers.
- He has demanded Walmart absorb the cost of his tariffs to avert price hikes for consumers, warning on Truth Social: “I’ll be watching.”
- He’s ignored a law that was supposed to ban TikTok in the US if its Chinese parent company did not divest, embracing the app after it proved useful to his 2024 campaign.
- He’s even told parents to buy fewer cheap toys from China amid the threat of supply chain shortages, saying that “maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls.”
Reality check: Politicians routinely use their bully pulpit or pull policy levers to control prices of critical goods.
- The difference is that Trump was the one who directly set the price hikes in motion by raising tariffs.
Between the lines: Trump has not been shy about using his presidential authority to control the economy.
- In an interview with Time magazine, Trump compared the US market to “the biggest department store in history” and said he would determine the price of entry with tariffs.
- “[O]n behalf of the American people, I own the store, and I set prices, and I’ll say, if you want to shop here, this is what you have to pay.”
Yes, but: the White House says the administration is making an effort to help the free market lower prices, as distinct from traditional notions of “price controls.”
- “Our full suite of supply-side reforms — rapid deregulation, domestic energy production, and tax cuts — along with our America First trade policies have now delivered multiple below-expectation inflation reports, robust jobs reports, trillions in historic investment commitments, and a UK trade agreement that opened up billions of dollars in export opportunities for American producers, with many more custom-tailored trade deals to come,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said this week.
“The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart; and thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness” Deuteronomy 28:28-29
Joel
A Prophecy of Esau and Jacob 