There’s a lot of talk about how Trump would hang “socialism” around Bernie’s neck. And I’m sure that would be the president’s major point of attack. But it’s not clear how effective that would be.

One of the defining features of the last three years has been an emerging argument from both the progressive left and the nationalist right that the free market is overrated.

Here’s Trump’s problem: How does the guy who expanded the government, blew up the national debt, and gave $28 billion in farm bailouts to subsidize the tariff war he started complain about Sanders not being a true-blue capitalist?

Don’t get me wrong. Trump certainly would make that argument, and it’ll probably work with the kind of marginal suburban voters he’d like to win back. What I mean is that there is a problem in that Trump has already told his base that the world is stacked against them and that the only way for them to get theirs is for the government to redistribute money in their favor.