First, quoted in a New York Times article:
“I don’t want them moving out of the country without consequences,” Mr. Trump said, even if that means angering the free-market-oriented Republicans he beat in the primaries but will have to work with on Capitol Hill.
“The free market has been sorting it out and America’s been losing,” Mr. Pence added, as Mr. Trump interjected, “Every time, every time.”
Then the peerless Jonah Goldberg’s take on it:
I don’t begrudge Trump his distrust and/or ignorance of the free market. He ran on dirigisme, protectionism, and a cult-of-personality approach to issues of public policy (‘I alone can fix it!’ and all that B.S.). He has spent his entire professional life working, bribing, and cajoling politicians for special deals — and he’s been honest about it.
But Mike Pence is supposed to be one of us. He’s supposed to be, if not the chief ideologist of the Trump administration, at least the mainstream right’s ambassador and emissary in the West Wing. And here he is casually throwing the ‘free market’ under the bus in order to elevate crony capitalism, industrial policy, and rule of man over rule of law. Does Pence really believe that America loses in the free market every time? Really?
(I didn’t feel that I could quote Goldberg’s words without linking to his article, but I will warn, once again, that he’s not for the faint-hearted in terms of language.)
BTW, in case you don’t know what “dirigisme” means (I didn’t either and just looked it up), the definition is “state control of economic and social matters.”
AND THIS JUST IN (don’t you hate it when people write in all caps?): Of all the unlikely things I would ever have seen myself doing, agreeing with Sarah Palin would be right up there–but apparently she’s come out against the Carrier deal, too, calling it “crony capitalism.” Oh my. And the article is in Politico Magazine to boot, that organ of the mainstream media. Can you buh-leeve it? (Although she does “stop short of a full-out rebuke of Trump, writing, “Gotta’ have faith the Trump team knows all this.” Um, yeah. Faith is right.)