WILL THE REAL POPULISTS PLEASE STAND UP — Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who is set to be confirmed on Thursday as Health and Human Services secretary, wants to remake the U.S. food system and take on the pharmaceutical industry. Tulsi Gabbard, who was confirmed as director of national intelligence today, has been sharply critical of U.S. interventionism overseas. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who’s been nominated to lead the Department of Labor, supports more protections for workers to organize. These populist policies are right at home in progressive circles, yet they are associated with the eclectic Cabinet nominees of President Donald Trump. It’s created a moment of dissonance for many liberal members of Congress, who are struggling to make sense of a new political order where they suddenly share some policy goals with a populist MAGA administration whose ideology and general agenda is loathed by the left. Some of those Democrats refuse to even acknowledge any common ground, or the idea that any members of Trump’s Cabinet are interested in pursuing an agenda that aligns in any way with the needs of working class Americans. “Trump’s people are grifters, fake populists,” said Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Casar (D-Texas). “When they stumble upon a good idea, it tends to be on accident more than on purpose.” “I'm not convinced that either … Kennedy and Gabbard are actually populists,” Vermont Democrat Becca Balint, a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said in an interview in mid-December. “Or [if] they're just opportunists.” In part, that’s because defining a true populist has never been simple. Populism — a big ideological net described most simply as a movement to position so-called ‘common’ interests against the interests of the ‘elite’ — originated in the 19th century. It took shape in opposition to the broad control industrialists like Cornelius Vanderbilt and Andrew Carnegie held over railroads, farm prices, steel mills, politics and more, explains Joe Lowndes, a lecturer of political science at Hunter College with a focus on right-wing politics and populism. Populism took on many personalities throughout the 20th century: the label was tacked onto progressive reform movements between 1890-1920 but also to McCarthyism in the 50’s. Today, populist tenets are embraced by progressives but also increasingly find a home in Trump’s reshaped Republican Party. As Steve Bannon, a Trump ally and prominent MAGA voice, told The New York Times in late January, “I’m a hard-core populist. I’m a hard-core nationalist. I’m not a conservative.” “What left wing populism and right wing populism have in common is the idea that you've got outsiders who are parasitic on you,” Lowndes says. The two sides differ in who they blame: The left focuses its ire on economic elites while the right targets those whose ideas — or existence — is perceived to hurt everyday, hard-working Americans. These ideas resonated with voters of all backgrounds and political affiliations in 2024, as evidenced by the popularity of Kennedy — who reached 15 percent support in the presidential race in July, according to Pew — and the mismatch of voters splitting tickets between Trump and working class House Democrats like Washingtonian Marie Gluesenkamp Perez or New Yorker Pat Ryan. But it was Trump who found a way to get Kennedy on his side, not Vice President Kamala Harris. “The right … [has] been flexible,” says Lowndes. “And willing to … bring into its orbit all kinds of politics that you wouldn’t historically have associated with it.” Many of Trump’s appointees, of course, are antithetical to populist principles — his list of Cabinet and agency nominees is teeming with billionaires and pro-Wall Street economic nominees like Scott Bessent and Howard Lutnick. But the few that are more aligned with populist thinking aren’t exactly being welcomed by Democrats. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who argued immediately after the election that Democrats need to embrace populism to build a more durable political coalition, repeatedly left questions about Kennedy’s opposition to corporate agriculture and Big Pharma unanswered when pressed by POLITICO on the Hill in December, and instead pivoted to Kennedy’s position on vaccines and criticized Trump’s economic cabinet picks. “I don’t buy this narrative,” Murphy said, refusing to believe that Kennedy and Gabbard might signal any populist policy shift on the part of Trump. Kennedy and Gabbard were political quid pro quo, Murphy argued, and the policy proof is in Trump’s choices for economic positions. “In almost every meaningful economic post, he has people who are corporate shills… this is going to be a pro-corporate White House from beginning to end.” The ongoing, who’s-the-real-populist tensions were on full display during Kennedy’s testimony in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on January 30 Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), in his closing statement, contrasted his working class positions with the administration. “I think in many ways, President Trump and Mr. Kennedy have asked some of the right questions,” Sanders said — from the broken economy to a corrupt political system. “Problem is, their answers will only make a bad situation worse.” Kennedy latched on to Sanders’ point on corruption. “Bernie, the problem of corruption is not just in the federal agencies, it’s in Congress too,” Kennedy said, arguing that many members of the HELP panel — including Sanders — receive money from the pharmaceutical industry. “In 2020 you were the single largest receiver of pharmaceutical money,” RFK said, pointing his finger at Sanders. Sanders waved a finger right back. “Because I had contributions from workers all over this country,” Sanders hollered over Kennedy. “Workers!” Hectoring one of Congress’ foremost left-wing populists wasn’t a promising beginning, but Balint, Sanders’ congressional delegation colleague from Vermont, doesn’t completely write off the idea that the two sides might eventually find common ground. “Will we have an opportunity to make a real difference?” she asked. “It depends if these people are true populists.” Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight’s author at nfertig@politico.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @natsfert.
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