{"id":777,"date":"2018-03-24T09:56:08","date_gmt":"2018-03-24T13:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=777"},"modified":"2018-03-25T10:04:00","modified_gmt":"2018-03-25T14:04:00","slug":"how-trumpism-has-come-to-define-the-republican-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=777","title":{"rendered":"How Trumpism has come to define the Republican Party"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By\u00a0Ashley Parker<\/a><\/span>\u00a0March 24 at 7:09 PM<\/span>\u00a0Email the author<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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\nPresident Trump walks across the South Lawn to board the Marine One helicopter as he departs the White House on Friday. (Jabin Botsford\/The Washington Post)<\/span><\/div>\n
Over just a few days last week, the essence of Trumpism was on global display: The president\u00a0ignored his advisers<\/a>\u00a0by congratulating Vladi\u00admir Putin, took the first steps toward\u00a0imposing tariffs\u00a0<\/a>on billions of dollars in Chinese goods and\u00a0signed<\/a>\u00a0a huge $1.3 trillion spending bill that will balloon the federal deficit.In each case, President Trump cast aside years of Republican orthodoxy \u2014 and most of the party followed right along. The raw, undefined brand of populism that Trump rode into office is now hardening into a clearer set of policies in his second year, remaking the Republican Party and the country on issues ranging from trade and immigration to spending and entitlement programs.<\/p>\n

Even amid persistent unpopularity and the chaotic din of his White House, Trump has used a mix of legislation and unilateral actions to successfully push ahead with key parts of his vision \u2014 tariffs that have rocked global markets; harsh crackdowns on illegal immigrants; a nationalistic foreign policy that spurns allies while embracing foes and costly policies with little concern for the growing national debt.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n

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The spending legislation\u00a0\u2014 which puts the deficit on track to pass $1 trillion in 2019 \u2014 faced little meaningful opposition from Republican lawmakers despite years of GOP complaints that federal expenditures were out of control. Trump called the bill \u201cridiculous,\u201d but focused on issues other than the amount of spending.It was another example of how Trump seems to have overtaken his party\u2019s previously understood values, from a willingness to flout free-trade principles and fiscal austerity to a seeming abdication of America\u2019s role as a global voice for democratic values.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n