In the upcoming presidential election, the issues really don’t matter at all. Nobody in their right mind believes a thing that Trump says, so it’s all guesswork as to what he will do in office. And even if I agreed with Trump 100% on “the issues” (I don’t) I’d still vote against him because he’s obviously unfit to serve.
But for the sake of argument, let’s think about the race as if the issues did matter. What do you notice? It turns out that Trump’s rhetoric has changed radically since he was first elected in 2016. At that time he was a pro-business conservative that likes to build things. Today, he’s a radical NIMBY whale hugger who opposes almost every project you can imagine:
1. He opposes the construction of apartment buildings in the suburbs.
2. He opposes solar power facilities.
3. And now he wants to destroy America’s booming offshore wind industry because it supposedly kills whales (it doesn’t.)
Donald Trump vowed to issue an executive order targeting offshore wind development if he wins a second term as president, making his most explicit threat yet toward the growing industry. . . .
“We are going to make sure that that ends on day one,” he said. “I’m going to write it out in an executive order.” . . .
Developers say offshore wind is set to deliver big economic dividends — and potentially $25 billion in annual output — throughout the US, as it drives demand for specialty steel, new ships and other equipment. The same day Trump was speaking in New Jersey, a new American-built boat to service US offshore wind farms was christened in New Orleans.
4. He also wants to deport illegal migrants, who are an important part of our construction labor force.
How did Trump go from being a developer who likes putting up multifamily buildings and favors more infrastructure to a radical NIMBY environmentalist who opposes apartments and infrastructure? I suspect he is following his audience. In 2012, he was pro-immigration, but when he found out that his supporters hated immigration he switched his position. I suspect that Trump is discovering that many of his supporters are suburban NIMBYs who hate apartment buildings, wind farms and solar panels. (In the UK, the Conservatives have become the NIMBY party for similar reasons.)
Here’s something to think about. Back when Elon Musk was a moderate Democrat, he built a fantastically successful electric car company. Then for essentially unrelated reasons Musk became a far-right Republican. Now suppose that his firm made some other product, such as computer software. Suppose that he had no financial interest in EVs. Does anyone seriously doubt that in that case Musk would be on Twitter almost every single day trashing electric cars, complaining about government subsidies, and calling climate change a hoax? Those are the sort of people he now associates with on Twitter.
But in one of histories greatest ironies, Musk is stuck producing a product that primarily appeals to liberal environmentalists, even as he shifts further and further to the right. Decades from now, someone will write Musk’s biography. And it will be one of the strangest stories ever told. Almost as strange as the story of a big city developer who became a NIMBY to please his fans.