Rather than spending time on the second Republican Debate, which was still too crowded to be meaningful, it is more important to catch up on the person not in attendance, Donald Trump. The former President tells us his program for the country if he’s returned to office, but people need to listen.

Instead of attending the debate, Trump headed to Detroit seeking the striking United Auto Workers Union endorsement. Strangely, he held his rally at a non-union parts operation. Still, the visual is he and President Biden, who joined a UAW picket line, favored the union over management instead of realizing the Auto industry is in an impossible situation.

The administration is forcing the industry to faze out gas-powered autos in favor of battery-powered electric vehicles (E.V.s). Even with generous government subsidies, they lose big bucks on every E.V. At the same time, these autos require much less labor, meaning fewer jobs. Instead of recognizing the problems facing the union and management, the present and former presidents have taken the union’s side.

Only 6% of private sector workers are unionized; These votes are a tiny target. Even though concentrated in the toss-up states deciding Presidential elections, the Union bosses have always been significant funders of the Democratic Party; being on the side of workers as individuals paid off for Republicans. Aligning with the Union Leaders is an odd tact for a Republican candidate.

There is a good reason for Republicans to maintain their anti-union stance: they don’t work. Worse in today’s world, they’re harmful. In private industry, forcing higher wages than determined in the marketplace, unions compel management to automate or turn to lower wage areas here and abroad to survive. We manufacture more than ever, but we do it with fewer workers. Any growth in manufacturing employment has occurred in right-to-work states.

The only growth of union membership is in the public sector. This situation has resulted in heavily indebted governments and poor performance. Republicans generally contrast heavily unionized Blue States and cities with their better-managed red ones. Lawlessness, homelessness, and horrible schools paid for with ever-increasing taxes have resulted in migration from blue to red. This fact is a solid Republican talking point, yet Trump is cozying up to the union bosses. 

Walling off some of our union-dominated industries with tariffs can help them survive foreign competition, but are a tax raising prices for others. Trump put several tariffs, including steel and aluminum, that cost more than they’re worth in wages, GDP growth, and jobs. To date, Biden has kept almost all of Trump’s tariffs.

Republicans were once the party of capitalism. A central tenant of the system is free trade. Autarky or self-sufficiency is impossible in the modern world, and bad policy in any era. If inflation is the nation’s most significant concern, tariffs only raise prices. Why would a candidate campaign for something bound to increase costs, yet Trump has recently proposed a new 10% tariff on most everything? This tax will only hurt. 

Whether it’s the domestic content rules in Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) or Trump’s wild tariffs, we’ll lose friends abroad. Retaliation escalated into trade wars akin to the Smoot-Hawley Tariff that made the depression so much worse. At a time when we need to gather our friends to oppose malevolent autocracies, we’re giving them the finger.

Tariffs and domestic content rules are just another way of saying industrial policy. Republicans used to be for the marketplace rather than the government directing investment. In my series, “The Long Journey to More,” I pointed out that government planners, as in the old Soviet Union, deliver inferior outcomes, often resulting in human disasters. We are about to see this observation confirmed again in China as it moves from the marketplace to government control of everything and everybody. Is this what we want to emulate?

If Trump doesn’t appear to be a conservative Republican, maybe it’s because he never was one. Until a handful of years before he ran for President, he was a registered Democrat. To do business in New York,  getting along with unions was Trump’s M.O. As he clarified in his book, the Art of the Deal,” Trump is transactional.

This trait was very evident in his deal with conservatives and evangelicals to only appoint judges from a list provided by the Federalist Society. He received their support, helping him to win both the nomination and the 2016 election. He kept his word, and the High Court now has a conservative majority that overturned Roe v. Wade.

Earlier, Trump was pro-choice. Now that he feels he filled his part of the bargain, he’s reverted to his “lets make a deal self.” When to ban abortions, if at all, is a matter of negotiation rather than principle is Trump’s latest position.

The same transactional approach is evident in his claim he will end the Ukraine War in 24 hours. That would only work if Putin gets much of what he wants. What a slap in the face to our allies, the Ukrainians and Americans, supporting freedom.

Trump’s utter lack of guiding principles explains his disastrous Covid response. Rather than applying Conservative concepts of individual freedom and cost-benefit analysis, he signed on to the big government approach of shutting the nation down and willy-nilly sending out tons of dollars. Maintaining their principles, Conservative governors went in the opposite direction with far better results.

We still suffer from Trump’s COVID-19 failures with inflation and uneducated children. It is illuminating Dr. Anthony Fauci dominated COVID policy in both the Trump and Biden Administrations.

As we can see, Trump and Biden have similar policies. Both loudly proclaim they won’t touch entitlements, even though Medicare and Social Security won’t last the decade. We are on an unsustainable path without action on the most significant part of the budget. Both seem happy to keep their heads in the sand.

So why do so many claiming to be conservatives fervently support Trump? All the noise of his indictments may prevent them from hearing the actual Donald.