Donald Trump — A Populist Candidate and an Unpopulist President

Donald Trump has always been a far better candidate than president. First of all, that’s because he is great at capitalizing on grievances but not good at actually solving problems. In addition, his endless lies and antics make for good ratings on the campaign trail. As commander-in-chief, however, his bizarre behavior and weird obsessions just highlight how unqualified he is. And then, of course, there is the blatant corruption that comes along with him being in power and the focus on monetizing the presidency.

Most importantly, when he is running for office, Trump is great at identifying the issues voters care about and tapping into their anxieties. When he is in office, however, all of that goes out of the window.

While Americans are worried about higher prices and economic uncertainties, the president dismisses their concerns while fixating on things like ballrooms and renaming lakes.

And even though his policies, especially the tariffs and the war with Iran, are clearly exacerbating the affordability crisis, Trump and his lackeys claim that prices are coming down and everything is hunky-dory.

Over the past few days, however, he has taken things to another level.

With seven weeks to go before the midterms, one might think that the president would be laser-focused on addressing the issues that matter most to voters. That is especially true for a populist like Trump, who has turned making unrealistic pre-election promises into an artform.

And, to be fair, he did some of that last week during Don Con, the GOP’s convention in Texas, when he floated the idea of bribing voters with $5,000 apiece for preserving the Republican majority in Congress (needless to say, like previous vows to send out checks to Americans, this will never happen).

For the most part, however, Trump has curiously staked out positions that go against the opinions of voters.

For lack of a better word, he is engaging in unpopulism.

For example, on Monday, the president fired off a series of social media messages dismissing one of the greatest fears of Americans: the rise of artificial intelligence.

On the heels of AI industry insiders warning that the technology could lead to the destruction of humanity within the next decade, Trump said all of this is a “hoax,” which is the term he uses when something real is happening that he doesn’t like, e.g., claims that Russia helped him win in 2016 or that climate change is a threat to humans.

“AI, and Data Centers, will be the Greatest Economic Development Engine in History ­­— Bigger than Oil, Gold, Diamonds, or even the Internet,” Trump wrote in one post.

That’s not how Americans see things.

While AI may produce great riches for the tech bros supporting the president, more than 70 percent of voters believe that the technology will kill millions of jobs and more than a quarter fear it will be theirs.

Their president doesn’t care.

“The only control or “guardrails” that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades,” Trump, who doesn’t understand basic math and otherwise also isn’t the brightest bulb in a ballroom chandelier, wrote in another post.

He followed up those missives with three more in which he called concerns over AI a hoax.

But it’s not just artificial intelligence.

Trump recently also wrote that “the only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor.”

Once again, the president is on the wrong side of public opinion. More than seven in ten Americans do not support data center construction in their local area.

Finally, Trump this weekend also said that he liked Flock cameras, the devices (ab)used to surveil American drivers.

Once again, he is on the wrong side of the kind of issues that he used to exploit. The more people learn about these devices, more than 100,000 of which have been installed throughout the US, the more they don’t like them.

And populists on both sides of the aisle – from Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) — are tapping into that resentment with legislation and investigations.

Not Trump.

So, what gives?

According to Occam’s Razor, the simplest explanation is often the correct one, so we assume that the fat purses of tech industry moguls have something to do with the president taking their side instead of that of the American people.

But maybe, if they all pooled their money and found a way to funnel it into Trump’s pockets, he’d have a change of heart.