Trump to 1000 Points of Light: Drop Dead
Old Republican doctrine: Private charity beats government intervention. New Republican doctrine: Actually, private charity pretty much sucks, too.
Poppy Bush accepts the Republican nomination and talks up “a thousand points of light” in August 1988.
“‘Thousand points of light,’ I never quite got that one,” President Donald Trump said at a Montana rally in July 2018.
What the hell is that? Has anyone ever figured that one out? And it was put out by a Republican, wasn't it? I know one thing, “Make America Great Again” we understand. Putting America first we understand.
One year later Trump’s own eleemosynary venture, the Trump Foundation, would be shut down by the state of New York for breach of fiduciary duty, with Trump required to pay $2 million in damages for using it to further his presidential candidacy.
Earlier this year Elon Musk’s DOGE hatcheted federal grants to nonprofits, at an estimated cost of 14,430 private-sector jobs. Now the House tax bill is further eroding the conservative principle that private charity is preferable to government intervention by increasing the taxation of nonprofits (yes, it turns out they do pay some taxes) to bail out a federal government bankrupted by a planned tax cut for rich people. Of course, even with this new revenue stream, the tax cut will double the size of the budget deficit.
Look, this points of light stuff isn’t my religion. I like private philanthropy just fine, but it’s a poor substitute for government action. Still, respect for these points of light used to be pretty central to the conservative faith, and now the second Trump administration is dimming them. That’s the topic of my latest New Republic piece. You can read it here.