Ronald Reagan’s One Time Anti-Trump Son Takes Unmistakable Stand for Trump

March 10, 2025 Mark Wolf US 0

It’s a common feint for the NeverTrump crowd: What would Ronald Reagan have to say about Donald Trump?

You hear it a lot, but it’s especially true if Russia is involved. Never mind that Reagan left the White House in 1989, two years before the USSR imploded and Russia became an independent state. Never mind, too, that the same questions were said about Reagan: “What would the founding fathers have said about an actor getting into the White House?” (If they found out he put into motion the machinations that led to the downfall of America’s greatest political adversary and helped create a world where the USA was the only major national superpower left, I suspect George Washington might have asked, “Tell me more about this ‘Bedtime for Bonzo.’”)

This is so successful because 1) Reagan is generally considered the most consequential president of the past half-century, especially for conservatives, 2) his rhetoric was much more traditionally presidential than Trump’s, and 3) NeverTrumpers suspect he was far more economically libertarian, and would be more socially libertarian were he president in today’s climate, than Trump was — not to mention much tougher on Moscow.

The latest WWRRD? (“What Would Ronald Reagan Do?”, for the terminally dense) moment has come on tariffs, where Trump has put a new round of tariffs on a whole host of countries — especially China, now America’s most formidable political opponent, although one that seeks to defeat us via trade rather than militarily. (Although it might do both if it could.)

Enter Michael Reagan, the now 79-year-old son of the former president. He’s been critical of Trump in the past, saying this in 2016 after The Donald got the GOP nomination:

Nor had he taken a massive U-turn on Trump during the last election, calling his decision to skip the GOP debates “dumb.” (This will come as news to those of us who remember those debates, which featured a plump New Jerseyan calling Trump “Donald Duck” for missing the repartee and two South Carolinians arguing over drapery.) But I digress. Because now, he’s pulling the dumb card on anyone using his father’s legacy to argue against the tariffs.

According to the New York Post, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is one of many on Wall Street sharing a 1980s video of Reagan slamming tariffs to argue against the levies on China, Canada, and Mexico.

Do you think President Reagan would approve of the job President Trump is doing?

“We’re in the same boat with our trading partners,” Reagan said in the address.

“If one partner shoots a hole in the boat, does it make sense for the other one to shoot another hole in the boat? Some say, yes, and call that getting tough. Well, I call it stupid.”

In response, Michael Reagan took to social media to tell Wall Street and the world to wake up and smell the fentanyl precursors.

“Yes my father spoke about Tariffs when he was POTUS..that was 40yrs ago,it is different time with a different POTUS,for Gods sake quit using my father to bash Trump,” Reagan said on X.

And then, he reminded us of something so many in the liberal corners of our great national conversation parlor who use Ronald Reagan’s ghost as an incantation against Trump are loath to admit.

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“FYI it is amazing that you all of a sudden support my father when for 8 yrs you treated him like you are treating Trump today,” he said.

“Give Trump time and get out of the way,” he added, noting: “Remember my dad ended up kicking your a**es.”

WARNING: The following post contains language that may offend some readers. 

And that’s the thing: It’s 40 years on, more or less. These are some of the other things that Michael Reagan has been posting or reposting on his X page — things that Ronald Reagan, when president, could scarcely dream would be happening:

A whopping $50 billion in unaudited American taxpayer money allegedly going into the hands of known terrorist organizations? Chinese spies in the U.S. military? Men in women’s sports because people believe they’re actually women? Were he to come back and read his son’s social media feed, he’d assume that the USSR made a comeback after his exit from this vale of tears in 2004 — and had actually re-fought, and won, the Cold War.

It’s good enough news that Michael Reagan has done a U-turn on Trump, as so many Republicans have done, and has realized that he’s not some loon but a leader with principles and a vision — like Michael’s dad. The important take-home here, however, is that we’re going to be four decades on since Reagan left the White House when Trump leaves it.

WWRRD? no longer applies. It was a different world and a different economy with a different enemy using different tactics. And remember, every person now pining for Reagan, if they were around at the time and culturally relevant, used the same language about him that they’re using about Trump. At least that’s stayed the same — not that they’d notice.



C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he’s written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014.

C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he’s written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014. Aside from politics, he enjoys spending time with his wife, literature (especially British comic novels and modern Japanese lit), indie rock, coffee, Formula One and football (of both American and world varieties).

Birthplace

Morristown, New Jersey

Education

Catholic University of America

Languages Spoken

English, Spanish

Topics of Expertise

American Politics, World Politics, Culture

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