Rep. Justin Amash, Michigan independent, accused the Trump administration on Saturday of hypocritically pursuing socialist policies.
Mr. Amash, a former Republican who left the GOP last year, made the claim on social media in response to remarks given recently by Attorney General William P. Barr.
Speaking at an event Thursday, Mr. Barr mulled the U.S. taking a controlling stake in European telecommunications companies Nokia and Ericsson to counter Chinese firm Huawei.
“Putting our large market and financial muscle behind one or both of these firms would make it a far more formidable competitor and eliminate concerns over their staying power,” Mr. Barr said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a bipartisan think-tank based in D.C.
“We and our closest allies certainly need to be actively considering this approach,” the attorney general added.
Mr. Amash subsequently took to Twitter to react to a news report about Mr. Barr’s remarks.
“This is called socialism. One of the Trump administration’s greatest tricks has been to advance socialist policies while decrying socialism,” Mr. Amash tweeted.
Indeed, President Trump has regularly criticized socialism and ripped Democrats for advocating pertinent economic policies.
“Socialism destroys nations,” Mr. Trump said during his third State of the Union address Tuesday.
More recently, Mr. Trump’s re-election campaign issued a statement criticizing Democratic presidential candidates for not condemning socialism during Friday’s primary debate.
“Democrats were given multiple opportunities tonight to denounce socialism and none of them did,” the statement said.
The White House did not immediately respond to a message seeking the administration’s reaction to the congressman’s tweet.
Mr. Amash, 39, successfully campaigned five times as a Republican to represent Michigan’s Third Congressional District, which includes his hometown of Grand Rapids.
He left the GOP in July 2019, less than two months after becoming the first Republican member of Congress to call for impeaching Mr. Trump.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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