PRIVATIZATION—CHIPPING AWAY AT GOVERNMENT

Ronald Reagan ushered in a full-throated assault on American government when he declared in his 1981 inaugural address, “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem” (1981). His vision and agenda were clear: reduce the size and power of the federal government. Handing over services and assets to the private sector one by one was at the center of that vision. Donald Trump, nearly forty years later, riding a wave of right-wing populism and hatred for nearly everything government, came to office with a privatization movement already making major gains. Trump has