President Donald Trump and the Republican Party may be focusing on their infrastructure and budget policies on Monday, but in reality, 2018 will be the year in which they try to stave off political disaster by playing the race card.
Trump’s $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan and $4 trillion budget are not top priorities for the Republican Party, according to Axios. Instead, the plan is to tout the benefits of the 2017 tax reform legislation — and allow Trump’s Twitter feed to effectively become policy.
As Axios explained:
A source close to the White House tells me that with an eye to getting Republicans excited about voting for Republicans in midterms, the president this year will be looking for “unexpected cultural flashpoints” — like the NFL and kneeling — that he can latch onto in person and on Twitter.
And when it comes to domestic policy — let’s say immigration, which Trump has made a priority — he can use his Twitter account to be really partisan.
Republicans want to fix DACA far more than the Democrats do. The Dems had all three branches of government back in 2008-2011, and they decided not to do anything about DACA. They only want to use it as a campaign issue. Vote Republican!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 10, 2018
It is worth noting that the controversy over the NFL player protests revolved around race — specifically, Trump arguing that it was unpatriotic for football players to choose to protest racial injustices in the United States by kneeling during the American national anthem. After all, Trump’s Twitter account disproportionately focuses on violent crimes that can be blamed on racial minorities or Muslims. And last month he singled out Jay-Z after the rapper called him out — even as Trump has remained silent when others have criticized him.
Somebody please inform Jay-Z that because of my policies, Black Unemployment has just been reported to be at the LOWEST RATE EVER RECORDED!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 28, 2018
Or when Don Lemon was critical of him.
Another false story, this time in the Failing @nytimes, that I watch 4-8 hours of television a day – Wrong! Also, I seldom, if ever, watch CNN or MSNBC, both of which I consider Fake News. I never watch Don Lemon, who I once called the “dumbest man on television!” Bad Reporting.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 11, 2017
Trump’s upcoming budget, meanwhile, is expected to call for drastic spending cuts in social programs — even as it increases spending on defense, veterans’ health issues and stopping illegal immigration. And over the past year, Trump’s supporters agreed with the rest of the United States that the president is tweeting too much.
