President Ronald Reagan was a strong proponent of free trade and immigration. Not open borders, but a reasonable way to admit immigrants to the United States.
Trump hates to be reminded of President Reagan’s views, because they don’t agree. Trump wants to deport every immigrant who is not a U.S. citizen, and he has recklessly imposed tariffs on every other nation in the world.
Trump has disrupted the global economic order with his capricious imposition of tariffs, raising them, lowering them, on a whim. And increasing inflation for everything imported by the U.S.
The prince of Ontario in Canada posted an ad that showed President Reagan’s opposition to tariffs. Trump reacted with fury because he didn’t want the public to know that his tariffs were contrary to GOP policies, opposed specifically by Reagan, who was far more popular than Trump.
Trump insisted that the Reagan ad was phony. He raised the tariffs on Canada for daring to try to influence a pending Supreme Court decision about his power to impose tariffs without Congress.
It wasn’t a phony ad. President Reagan opposed tariffs.
Even the Wall Street Journal chastised Trump for lying about Reagan’s opposition to tariffs.
An excerpt:
The Ontario government had the temerity to buy ad time to run clips of Reagan’s 1987 remarks warning about the dangers of protectionism. Mr. Trump pitched a social-media fit in response late Thursday, claiming Ontario “fraudulently used an advertisement, which is FAKE, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about Tariffs.”
The President said the ad was intended to interfere with the Supreme Court as it considers the legality of his claim that he can levy tariffs on anything he wants, for any amount he wants, whenever he wants. He immediately declared an end to trade talks with Canada….
Mr. Trump is wrong about the Reagan speech, and he was wrong when he said on social media that “Ronald Reagan LOVED tariffs for purposes of National Security and the Economy.” The Gipper was a free trader. In the 1987 speech, Reagan was trying to explain why he was making an exception to his free-trade policies on semiconductor imports from Japan…
It’s a shame to see the Reagan Foundation, of all places, indulging Mr. Trump’s pique with its statement saying the speech was taken out of context. Anyone who reads the whole speech can see the Gipper favored free trade, with rare exceptions for political pragmatism and national security. Reagan also backed, long before Nafta, a North American free-trade area….
Reagan knew that tariffs are taxes, while Mr. Trump pretends they are paid by foreigners. Reagan knew protectionist barriers over time breed complacency and lack of innovation. Mr. Trump thinks he’s making American manufacturing great again, when he is really hurting U.S. manufacturers by burdening them with higher costs. See American companies that use aluminum or steel.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Many people in the GOP believe that Trump’s policies can be classified as “conservative.” So many of Trump’s policies have little to do with classic conservatism. Trump doesn’t even believe in the rule of law or The Constitution. It seems like most of the GOP cares little of what it means to be conservative and that many of Trump’s policies deviate from the GOP norm. Instead, they blindly follow their elite New York fraudster down the chaotic rabbit hole. These are strange times when Rand Paul and Marjorie Taylor Greene seem to be the two most grounded people in their party.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Trump is not conservative. He is a reactionary firebomb.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I live in a conservative area. Many of the rank and file people in the GOP still believe Trump is the banner carrier for conservatism.
LikeLike
RT,
That’s why Trump gets furious when anyone demonstrates that his views are diametrically opposed to those of Reagan.
LikeLiked by 1 person
RT: I hear you clearly. I used to argue with my conservative friends that Trumpism was the direction their brand of conservatism was going. They scoffed. Now they all vote for Trump just like they voted for the Ayn Rand clones like Ryan. Neither Trump nor Rand was anywhere near the Christian all my friends claim them to be. Go figure. Robespierre was not really a republican when push came to shove.
LikeLiked by 1 person