What is MAGAnomics?

While the end of World War II 80 years ago ushered in an age of reason, Donald Trump's return to the White House has ushered it out.

- ANTARA HALDAR

While the end of World War II 80 years ago ushered in an age of reason, Donald Trump's return to the White House has ushered it out. His MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement promises to take a wrecking ball to the postwar global economic order, raising the question of what will replace it. "America First" seems to appeal to a wide spectrum of constituents, from blue-collar workers in the heartland to Big Tech "broligarchs." But what does it mean in practice? Is there any method to Mr. Trump's madness, or does he believe, like Mao Zedong, that "Everything under heaven is in chaos; the situation is excellent"?

At his second inauguration, Mr. Trump announced a new American "golden age," which presumably would be achieved by delivering on his campaign promises to end inflation, impose new tariffs, expel undocumented immigrants, cut taxes, and radically reduce the size of government. But mainstream economists were quick to point out that achieving these contradictory objectives simultaneously would be difficult, if not impossible. After all, tariffs, deportations, and tax cuts are all potentially inflationary.

What are we to make of MAGA economics—or what is variously referred to as "economic nationalism," "Trumponomics," or "populist economics"? Is it the progeny of economics, or something else entirely? Economics traditionally has comprised coherent schools of thought: Neoclassical, Keynesian, monetarist, and Marxian economics, for example, follow a certain internal logic. But MAGAnomics is an intellectual grab bag.