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Trump presented MFN drug policy in his first term in 2020 as an alternative to "Medicare for All". It was meant to kill the enthusiasm for Free Healthcare amongst right wingers. It's in the same vein as "no tax on tips" rather than raising the minimum wage. It's meant to be an alternative ineffective solution, which makes it look like he's doing something good when he really isn't.
He says the same thing with tariffs. He says that tariffs are meant to return manufacturing to the US, but what is actually happening is that working class people are paying more sales taxes.
oh i know it's all BS.
I do have a theory that a portion of his fair weather base (registered indepedent with confused politics, not MAGA fankids) remember his vaguely populist rhetoric from his first run and just think he's never actually changed.
like he's just some anti-immigrant bernie type but has just surrounded himself with bad people. I've talked to a few people that are legit that confused and out of touch
It may not actually be. Sure, the corporations helped put Trump in power. They made the same gamble countless nations' corporate sectors did when supporting fascist leaders - "yes he's extreme, but we can control him." How well did that work out for the Nazi German corporate sector? How well did that work for Russia's oligarchs under Putin? Sure, some lucky ones got really rich by maintaining favor with the regime. But the moment your businesses interests go against the interests of the leader? You get trampled under the same boot as everyone else.
The pharma companies helped put Trump in power, but they're also incredibly unpopular. If there's some way Trump can crush them, then that would greatly increase his own popularity. It may well be worth it for MAGA to stomp the pharma companies, even if it means losing their donations. It would hardly be the first time a fascist leader purged many of the people who put him in power.