Taxes, regulation and ‘the blob’ caused Europe and the U.K. to stagnate. He shows us the way out.
By Liz Truss, (Reprinted from The Wall Street Journal)
Donald Trump’s re-election is a victory for conservatism over wokeism, for the people over the elite, and for the American economic model over the European. The U.S. economy has eclipsed Europe’s, including the U.K.’s. In the 2000s, Britons briefly had a higher gross domestic product per capita than Americans — today, we are $34,000 a head poorer. France and Germany have fallen similarly behind.
Most European nations consigned themselves to the economic doldrums through heavy taxes and regulation. They’ve suffered high energy costs and stagnation as a result. Even though the U.K. left the European Union, we have yet to remove many stifling regulations we were bound to impose during our membership in it. Worse, the U.K. doubled down on net zero, ruining our industrial base and pushing our energy prices to the highest in the developed world. The country’s largest steelworks closed this fall. We’re importing most of our gas rather than fracking it.
Mr. Trump’s strategy is the opposite. In his first term, he cut taxes and rolled back regulation, bringing prosperity to the middle class. The Biden administration’s European-style policies — heavy on taxes, regulation and net-zero goals — jeopardized this prosperity. Americans responded by voting for Mr. Trump.
His second term promises even more prosperity. As the Growth Commission — a nonpartisan group of international economists I convened — outlines in its new Growth Presidency Memo, Mr. Trump can extend America’s global economic lead. By letting the energy industry “drill, baby, drill,” repealing regulation, and further cutting taxes, he will turbocharge the U.S. economy. The Growth Commission recommends extending many elements of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act set to expire in 2025, and endorses cutting the corporate tax rate to 15%.
Mr. Trump has also vowed to finish off the deep state—what we in Britain call “the blob.” Elon Musk will gut the federal bureaucracy in the same way he sorted out X. In doing so, the Trump administration will protect the Constitution. Too much power has been delegated to unaccountable bureaucrats. Undoing this is necessary to restore American greatness — but fraught with risk. The unelected elite are powerful and fight dirty.
I saw this for myself as prime minister when I tried to implement tax cuts and supply side reforms such as fracking deregulation. These plans would have put Britain on a path to growth. They were undermined by the Bank of England and others who wanted to maintain the status quo of uncontrolled immigration, net-zero orthodoxy and big government. I see the same forces at work in the U.S. To succeed, Mr. Trump will need a committed administration and backing from the conservative movement.
A free-trade deal with the U.K. would benefit both countries. The deal would let Britons avoid tariffs. In exchange, the U.K. would increase defense spending, abandon net-zero targets and take a firmer line on China — the West’s greatest threat.
In 2019, when I was international-trade secretary, Mr. Trump was keen to make a deal. It was kiboshed by my party’s Conservatives in name only. Now, with Britain struggling under Keir Starmer’s socialist policies, a deal is even more compelling. It could be the only way Britain escapes a rerun of the economic ruination of the 1970s. Without change, we are headed for blackouts and a financial crisis.
Mr. Trump can help Europe help itself. When negotiating trade agreements, he can refuse carbon border taxes — tariffs based on greenhouse-gas levels emitted during production. Also on the chopping block should be the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s disastrous minimum-tax agreement, which imposes a tax floor of 15% on multinational corporations.
Mr. Trump can do more than end wokeism and kickstart the American economy. He can also export America’s economic model to Europe and give us our confidence back. In short, as well as saving America, he can save the West. It’s a big task, but if anyone can do it, he can.
Ms. Truss served as Britain’s prime minister in 2022 and is author of “Ten Years to Save the West.” Photo: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
