Club for Growth: 'Trump has turned political pandering into an art form'

By Gabby Morrongiello, Gabby Morrongiello

Published December 20, 2015

The fiscally conservative Club for Growth has opened a new line of attack against Donald Trump, dubbing his campaign the "Trump Pander Tour," after the Republican presidential hopeful declared his full support for ethanol and wind subsidies during a recent town hall.

During a town hall Thursday evening in Newton, Iowa, Trump said the "only way" to make college more affordable for low-income students is to "start some government program." He also endorsed federal subsidies for the wind industry and announced his backing of the federal Renewable Fuel Standard.

"Those are the kind of liberal big government policies that Democrats embrace," the group's president, David McIntosh, wrote in a statement Friday.

"Republicans who fight for conservative economic principles should oppose subsidies and work to end government programs, not start new ones. But Donald Trump isn't fighting for conservative economic principles; he's fighting for himself and telling people what he thinks they want to hear. He's still the worst kind of politician," McIntosh added.