Although Donald Trump is trying to re-invent himself as a conservative for a possible bid for president in 2012, reminders of his prior support for Democrats and big government polices keep adding up. The latest: The Donald supported the auto bailout in 2008.
“I think the government should stand behind them 100 percent,” Trump told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto nearly three years ago. “You cannot lose the auto companies. They’re great. They make wonderful products.”
Faced with crushing debts caused by poor management and high labor costs, GM and Chrysler requested federal assistance to keep the firms afloat, and were granted a $25 billion loan in the fall of 2008. President George Bush then secured more than $17 billion for the companies.
This occurred months before the birth of the Tea Party, but conservatives were outraged.
Not Trump. A longtime advocate of sweetheart deals between corporation and state, the real-estate developer went all in for the deal.
“[Y]ou have to try and save the companies,” Trump said in a separate 2008 Fox News interview. “And I think you can easily save the companies.”
The Club for Growth, a free-market advocacy group that opposed the bailouts, blasted out a statement Wednesday knocking Trump for his support for bailouts over bankruptcy, and cited that the real-estate mogul had succesfully filed for bankruptcy himself four times in the past 20 years.
“If there’s anyone who should know the value of filing for bankruptcy, it’s Donald Trump. He should have known that the $13.4 billion government bailout of the auto industry just put off the inevitable while putting taxpayers at risk,” said Club for Growth President Chris Chocola. “Bailouts and nationalizing whole industries can cripple free markets and has hampered our economic recovery. We need our next President to understand that economic freedom leads to growth and prosperity for all, and that the government should never be in the business of picking winners and losers.”