For the true MAGA folks, this is no different than anything Trump has been saying for decades.
But for the normie Reagan Republican, it might come as a surprise. Enter Oren Cass, a conservative economist at American Compass:
What I think we should want ... is the idea that we absolutely want a strong economic and security alliance. It's not going to be the whole world because China is going to have its own sphere as well, but what we wanna have within our sphere is a few things in the past the United States didn't exactly ask for.
We're going to want balanced trade, where in the past we were happy to let the manufacturing go elsewhere. We're going to want others to essentially own their own defense burdens ... everybody take primary responsibility for their own defense.
What did everyone think MAGA meant?
It's not that Trump doesn't want free trade, it's that free trade doesn't exist right now for the American people. It only exists in the starry-eyed fever dreams of Reaganite commentators who think that's how the world actually works.
Exports made by Americans are taxed by other countries while we let them import their cheap products for essentially free, giving Americans price cuts but making it impossible for American companies to compete unless they outsource production elsewhere. That is exactly what has happened over the last few decades and it has destroyed countless American towns.
Trump's whole schtick is to impose economic tit-for-tat in the hopes that other countries will drop their tariffs on U.S. goods. In that case, we actually get closer to free trade. It also allows us to invest in American manufacturing because we cannot rely on rising superpowers like China for all our industrial needs.
Whether or not that strategy works is up for debate.
The folks who lied us into endless wars in the Middle East and Eastern Europe may have also lied to us about trade? WHO COULD HAVE EVER GUESSED??
Free trade is great, as long as we aren't ripped off and we aren't costing our citizens their livelihoods. Spending on defense is good, as long as it is OUR defense and not defending every country in the world.
Republicans better put on their big boy pants.
This is what MAGA means.
Here's the full Daily Show segment if you want it:
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