Albert R. Hunt, Columnist

Trump's DOA Budget Has Two Silver Linings

It breaks campaign promises. It scares Republicans. It's fantasy-based. But look! There's infrastructure and family leave.

May 23, 2017 at 5:14 PM UTC

By Albert R. Hunt

Albert R. Hunt is a former Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He was the executive editor of Bloomberg News, before which he was a reporter, bureau chief and executive Washington editor at the Wall Street Journal.

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It's easy to see why President Donald Trump was 6,000 miles away when his first budget was unveiled today: It's politically perilous for his Republican Party and would be a policy disaster.

Although the Trump budget is dead well before its arrival in Congress, a few of its elements could start useful conversations. For example, its proposals for modest infrastructure spending could lead to something more ambitious, and there's a provision for mandating some paid family leave.