Like so many other things about the Trumps, their claims to be "populists" are absurd on their face. They have, however, repeated populist phrases enough so the witless media talks about it.
And, what political advisers do not realize is that people judge statements based upon their own set of ethics. It is not gullibility so much as judging what others are saying as if one is saying it one's self. If a listener would never dream of making a claim he or she could not back up, they tacitly assume that is true for the Trumps, too. It isn't.
So, let us be very clear: if you eliminate (or even reduce) inheritance taxes, you are not populists. Period.
Leveling the playing field is the heart of populism. Eliminating the inheritance tax makes the slope of that playing field steeper and steeper. It is a slap in the face to democracy and meritocracy.
But, that is what Trump proposes to do.
Oh, how badly the Trumps want to portray themselves as populists, interested in "the people". It does not matter, you see, that Trump spent his entire life servicing the rich, stiffing investors and defrauding "the people".
Donald Trump, Jr., who has never held a job that his daddy did not give him, complained about fancy schools and elitism, with a straight face!
They are only populists because, well, they say they are. Daddy Drumpf used his influence to get Donald into Wharton -- not the business school, but just undergraduate. Donald claims he is "very smart", but we have never seen his transcripts. And, if he were really smart, why did he need Daddy's influence to be admitted in the first place?
That's not populism, that's privilege.
Donald Trump likes to say that Daddy Drumpf "only" gave him a $1 million loan to get started. Well, $1 million when Daddy did that is about $6 million in today's dollars. Any one of "the people" out there whose daddy has $6 million to give him? Or, even $1 million? This is not to mention the $40-200 million that he inherited.
One cannot even begin to speak of being populist without a significant inheritance tax. Otherwise, wealth remains hoarded by people whose only "merit" is the luck of being born to someone wealthy, and it is perpetuated and exacerbated with each generation.
That's not populism, that's privilege.
Trump says that China is manipulating its currency. So, he rewards them with American jobs. That's not populism, that's appeasement.
So, media. Rather than regurgitating what Trump tells you about himself, why not do some reporting (yikes)? Trump wants to eliminate the inheritance tax. So, he cannot be a populist.
And, you cannot speak of him as being a populist. Ever.
Get it?