As Trumponomics continues to fail and Mamdani rediscovers that rent control doesn’t work, there will come a time when reality reasserts itself.
The chummy Oval Office meeting between President Donald Trump and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani was truly horseshoe theory on display. The far-left and the far-right have a lot in common.
“We agree on a lot more than I would have thought,” Trump remarked about his meeting with the democratic socialist.
While much of the media coverage expressed surprise at how friendly the two were, I’m not sure how anyone can really be surprised.
Sure, Trump indulges in standard anti-leftist talking points and has called Mamdani a communist. Sure, Mamdani indulges in standard leftist talking points and has called Trump a fascist. But both Trump and Mamdani have fundamentally overlapping belief in the power, and obligation, of the government to meddle in economic affairs in pursuit of their conceptions of fairness and justice.
Both are the product of a populist rejection the power of markets to solve problems and a populist impulse to toss out whatever limitations are in the way of “our side” doing what must be done.
While Mamdani has previously indicated his dream of “seizing the means of production,” Trump has actually been doing it in a sense.
From having the federal government buy a stake in Intel to shaking down companies left and right, Trump has eviscerated what was left of a free market orientation in the Republican Party.
“We have a golden stock, we have a golden share, which I control, or a president controls,” Trump said of Nippon Steel’s acquisition of U.S. Steel back in June.
He’s trotted out pharmaceutical executives agreeing to lower prices and/or producing more in the United States in exchange for Trump not hammering them with tariffs.
