Republican Party orthodoxy on government subsidies for private industry tends to be straightforward: Industries should rise and fall based on market forces, not politicians picking winners and losers. It’s the same GOP philosophy that says that if a private industry, especially one that’s been around for a while, needs the government to give it taxpayer money, that looks less like capitalism and more like socialism.
Donald Trump, however, makes occasional exception to these rules. The New York Times reported:
President Trump on Wednesday directed the Pentagon to start buying more electricity from coal-burning power plants as part of his efforts to revive the declining coal industry.
Mr. Trump signed an executive order directing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to enter into long-term contracts with coal plants across the country to power military installations. The move could provide financial support to dozens of coal plants that might have otherwise been set to retire in the coming years.
“We’re going to be buying a lot of coal through the military now,” the Republican said at a White House event. “We’re lifting up our hardworking American miners like nobody has ever done before.”
There’s no great mystery about the broader context. Trump sees the coal industry as a political ally; his administration has consistently sided with polluters; he’s eagerly embraced an economic model rooted in state-controlled capitalism; and he seems desperate to make the climate crisis worse.
The order directing the Pentagon to bolster coal plants that might otherwise fail, in other words, came as a surprise to no one.
There was one element of the White House event, however, that stood out.
Several coal industry executives and miners in hard hats took the opportunity to present Trump with a trophy that labeled him the “Undisputed Champion of Beautiful Clean Coal.”
It led USA Today to note, “Flattering the president with specialty prizes has become all the rage in Donald Trump’s administration.”
This has been going on for a while now. Shortly after Trump left office in 2021, following his defeat in the 2020 election, the National Republican Senatorial Committee made up an honor for him called the Champion for Freedom Award.
More recently, after the president’s begging didn’t lead to a Nobel Peace Prize, FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, concocted its own peace prize in the hopes of making Trump feel better.
Let this be a lesson to those hoping to curry favor with the White House: If you haven’t already visited a store that makes trophies, you’re making a mistake.
