Republicans want to make 2020 about capitalism vs. socialism. But there's a problem: Trump.

Trump isn't the defender that capitalism needs. Nor is he the one that any remaining free-marketeers in the GOP should want.

President Trump.
(Image credit: Illustrated | SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images, gopixa/iStock)

The financial crisis bodyslammed public confidence in markets. And it has yet to fully recover, especially among millennials. Competitive capitalism needs defenders, preferably ones who understand and value it.

But champion of capitalism is certainly an odd and ill-fitting role for America's populist president.

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James Pethokoukis

James Pethokoukis is the DeWitt Wallace Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute where he runs the AEIdeas blog. He has also written for The New York Times, National Review, Commentary, The Weekly Standard, and other places.