Trump’s ‘focus on glitz, glamor’ helped him profit as middle class hollowed out: author

Joining me now is Tom McGrath, author of Trump of the Yuppies, Triumph Rather of the Yuppies, America, the 80s and the Creation of an Unequal Nation. Tom, this is this is going to be fun. Explain first of all, how exactly yuppies got involved here. Who were they described them? How'd they go from being this kind of young counterculture group focused on money so intensely? Right. Well, as you mentioned, yuppie stands for young urban professional. And they're, they're really a subset of the massive baby boom generation folks who are very well educated. They come from some of the most elite schools in the country. They're very focused on career success, very materialistic, very focused on, on status. And they just, they gain increasing cultural and ultimately economic and political power in, in the first half of the 1980s. And I think understanding their story really is the origin story of of where we are today as a country. And and were they a lot about me, me, me, me, me? Absolutely. Yeah. There there really was about trying to be successful in their long own eyes with as much self gratification as as possible. Which brings me the end to this. One of the biggest names in the 80s was Donald Trump. I mean, you write as Trump moved up in the real estate world, he said there are no more middle buildings. And you add by the end of the 80s, there was less and less middle anything. So talk about Trump's role in all this and, and what it did to the middle class. So, so Trump is really kind of in some ways the, the, the quintessential yuppie. He's very focused on, on, on money, obviously on glitz, on glamour. And that's very much a yuppie quality. And what we start to see in the 80s and has continued to now is the hollowing out of the middle class. And sort of the irony of this is that you know what what Trump helped create as a businessman, he's now profited from as as a politician, because a lot of those working class voters that suffered starting in the 1980s have turned to him for some reason as as their here's something you also say their prominence increased. Quote. The rest of America's general distaste for yuppies evolved into an impatience with what became known as the elites. And we often hear about the the right's resentment of the elites. But to how then was Trump able to convince them to support him when what you're saying this description, he is one of the biggest examples of the yuppies. Yeah, I mean, yuppies are kind of insufferable. And that's we're kind of insufferable. And that's that's one of the reasons that there was so much eye rolling about yuppies. And yet, I mean, it does speak to to to Trump's political skills that he's he's managed to persuade people that that he, you know, in the working class that he really has their back. And to some extent, I think it's because he's been successful. People admire people who make money, even though they resent a lot of of the the methods that are used for for making that money. And so again, it speaks to Trump's political skill. I mean, I'm certainly no fan of Donald Trump, but but I think his as a politician, he's pretty. He's particularly savvy at the way he's at the way he's done this. Were yuppies ever cool? Was Donald Trump ever cool in this role? Well, they were cooled amongst themselves. That's that, That's for sure. But the, the, the country pretty quickly had their fill of them. And when the stock market crashed in 1987, there was a general consensus that this was the death of the yuppie and that really this was the end of yuppie Ness. And in fact, Yuppie Ness has more or less continued for the last 40 years. Interesting that you write about the culture that garnered support for President Ronald Reagan and an administration that focused on tax cuts for the wealthy, defunding government regulations, government programs and deregulation. Of course, how much of the way our country runs today can be traced back to President Reagan. A lot of it. A lot of it. I mean, you know, so much of what happened in the 80s is really relevant now. And in some ways, a lot of those those those issues that you just mentioned in those policies, Reagan pitched them as sort of benefiting the working class. And the truth is that almost all of them have actually hurt the working class. But again, it speaks to Reagan's political skills that he was able to pull out that messaging, even though the ultimate beneficiary of so many of those policies have been people at the upper end of the income scale. I'm curious what kind of reaction you've gotten to the book. It's been really great. The reviews have been wonderful. People who've read it have told me they've really loved it. I think it's it's in some ways fun to be nostalgic about the 1980s because I talk a lot about the pop culture stuff. But there's a deeper message to this book that that the policy shifts that that took place are were are coming home to roost right now. I, I can't tell you the last time I said the word yuppie. So I had a lot of fun saying it today with you. Thank you so much. Best of luck with the book. Again, Triumph of the Yuppies, America, the 80s and the Creation of a unequal nation. There it is.