{"id":1570296,"date":"2022-07-25T17:20:33","date_gmt":"2022-07-25T21:20:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1570296"},"modified":"2022-07-25T17:21:35","modified_gmt":"2022-07-25T21:21:35","slug":"trumps-think-tank-is-readying-to-betray-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trumps-think-tank-is-readying-to-betray-him\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump&#8217;s Think Tank Is Readying to Betray Him"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ftrumps-think-tank-is-readying-to-betray-him%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1570296&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p><span>D<em>on\u2019t go, Boss!<\/em> That\u2019s my strong advice to President Trump as he prepares to deliver a speech in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday at his alleged \u201cthink tank,\u201d the America First Policy Institute (AFPI).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Yes, it is important for President Trump to have a well-credentialed stable of policy experts capable of both building a 2024 platform and finding solid MAGA talent to populate a new Trump Administration. But the AFPI Trojan Horse\u2014whose leadership is now bragging about how it will staff Trump\u2019s \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/news\/politics\/trump-allies-line-up-shadow-government-as-he-weighs-third-run\/ar-AAZB1iM\"><span>shadow cabinet<\/span><\/a><span>\u201d\u2014is decidedly not that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Most comically, the AFPI roster features the author of a poison pen White House memoir who <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/Politics\/trump-staffer-penned-book-sued-president-back-working\/story?id=72568745\"><span>sued the president<\/span><\/a>;<span>\u00a0a Communist China-trained accountant who criticized the president for \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/news.byu.edu\/news\/its-own-trump-admins-price-disclosure-policy-unlikely-help-curb-drug-prices\"><span>ineffective drug price policies<\/span><\/a><span>\u201d; a former <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/rick-perry-denies-quid-pro-quo-ukraine-scandal-following-mulvaneys-it-happens-all-time-remarks-1466293\"><span>Cabinet secretary<\/span><\/a><span> who almost got Trump impeached; a former top advisor to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kpvi.com\/news\/local_news\/cheney-endorses-steve-yates\/article_5f856916-be8a-11e7-acf9-ff5c7049c8f6.html\"><span>Dick \u201cEndless War\u201d Cheney<\/span><\/a>;<span>\u00a0and John \u201cBook Deal\u201d Bolton\u2019s former <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/centerforsecuritypolicy.org\/bolton-adds-loyalists-to-national-security-council-staff\/\"><span>chief of staff<\/span><\/a><span>. What could go wrong there?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Most perniciously, the AFPI economics team is peppered with free trade ideologues on record opposing Trump\u2019s tariffs\u2014the most important and transformational component of Donald Trump\u2019s \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d movement. The most famous offender here is Trump\u2019s former National Economic Council Director <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2021\/01\/16\/kudlow-trump-capitol-violence-pence\"><span>Larry Kudlow<\/span><\/a>,<span> who is now vice chairman of the AFPI board.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>As I document in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.barnesandnoble.com\/w\/taking-back-trumps-america-peter-navarro\/1141303450?ean=9781637586785\"><i><span>Taking Back Trump\u2019s America<\/span><\/i><\/a><span>, I had to fight Brother Larry on an almost daily basis, not just on trade policy but also in my efforts to advance Trump\u2019s two most simple rules: buy American, hire American. And Kudlow worked hand-in-hand with several members of Trump\u2019s Council of Economic Advisors (CEA), who <\/span><i><span>now<\/span><\/i><span> constitute the free trade core of AFPI\u2019s economic experts.\u00a0<\/span><span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Most egregiously, Casey Mulligan has boasted how Trump\u2019s CEA chairman \u201cwould never waver from a free trade position,\u201d and at the White House, Trump\u2019s CEA, by culture and ideology, did everything it could to delay, dilute, and damage Trump\u2019s trade policies.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_179479\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-179479\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><noscript><\/noscript><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-179479\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brooke L. Rollins, president and CEO of the America First Policy Institute. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span>Incredibly, AFPI also hosts a gaggle of former Trump officials who have publicly criticized him for his \u201cStop the Steal\u201d efforts and\/or falsely implicated him in the January 6 violence. Besides the aforementioned Kudlow along with Kellyanne Conway, this gaggle includes former Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Wolf openly defied President Trump\u2019s order to fire the DHS official in charge of election security who laughably claimed the 2020 election was \u201cthe most secure in history.\u201d And Trump pulled Wolf\u2019s nomination for secretary after Wolf lit the Boss up over January 6.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Arguably, the most dangerous AFPI fifth-columnist is former Louisiana Governor <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/separating-trump-trumpism-key-gops-future-opinion-1572180\"><span>Bobby Jindal<\/span><\/a><span>. After the Boss left office, Jindal would insist \u201cTrump was undone by his own predatory nature\u201d and attacked the Boss for his \u201cconspiracy theories and extra-constitutional notions.\u201d Today, Jindal is aggressively pushing a \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/bobbyjindal.com\/separating-trump-from-trumpism-is-key\/\"><span>Trumpism without Trump<\/span><\/a><span>\u201d agenda.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>That may well be AFPI\u2019s broader agenda: Hijack the political attractiveness of Trumpism but replace Trump with an AFPI-anointed RINO. Here, it is worth remembering the Michael Dukakis <\/span><i><span>bon mot<\/span><\/i><span>:\u00a0<\/span><span>\u201ca fish rots from the head up.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The fishy CEO of AFPI is Trump\u2019s former Domestic Policy Council director, Brooke Rollins. She recently <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/news\/politics\/trump-allies-line-up-shadow-government-as-he-weighs-third-run\/ar-AAZB1iM\"><span>let slip<\/span><\/a><span>: <\/span><span>\u201c[W]hether the next president\u2019s name is Donald J. Trump or whether the next president is a different name, we will be there standing by ready to help and we\u2019ve already begun preparations for that time<\/span><span>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>If that\u2019s not a recipe for Jindal\u2019s \u201cTrumpism without Trump\u201d coup, I don\u2019t know what is; and Rollins ranks high on my list of bad personnel in the Trump White House who helped Trump lose the 2020 election.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>I thought when I served with her that Rollins was merely politically tone deaf. Today, after I see how she is staffing AFPI, there is a far darker possibility.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Memo to the Boss: Instead of legitimizing these grifters, why not demand they stop using the Trump good name to raise money to engineer their \u201cTrumpism without Trump\u201d coup. Alternatively, if this really is\u00a0<\/span><i><span>your<\/span><\/i><span> think tank, bring in a John McEntee or Liz Harrington to run the place with the <\/span><i><span>full<\/span><\/i><span> power to fire and hire. Now that would be a real Trump MAGA policy institute.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Don\u2019t go, Boss! That\u2019s my strong advice to President Trump as he prepares to deliver a speech in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday at his alleged \u201cthink tank,\u201d the America First<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1575591,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1570296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1570296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1570296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1570296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1575591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1570296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1570296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1570296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}