Trump’s war on government is going swimmingly

When Donald Trump ran for president, many in the Republican Party worried about the depths of his commitment to ideological conservatism in particular whether he truly had a desire to shrink government. After all, he would sometimes blurt out promises to not cut Medicare or Social Security, and his general populist tone suggested he cared much more about demonizing immigrants and barring Muslims from entering the country than about dismantling bureaucracies and slashing the safety net. But it turned out the president would do as much or more to undermine government as any Republican in memory. Even though and perhaps even because it’s still not something he particularly cares about. We have a good exploration of one front in that war from Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times, who reports on the efforts current acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney took to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) from within. It’s hard to find a story more emblematic of how conservative ideology has dovetailed with Trump’s style of governing to destroy consumer protections and to worsen inequality.