Steve Forbes supports President Trump’s announcement of Mt. Rushmore about communism
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Steve Forbes has been a courageous advocate of American capitalism, free markets and sound money for decades. As chairman and editor-in-chief of Forbes, and president-elect in 1996 and 2000, he has been one of the nation’s leading voices on economics.
Recently, Forbes sat down with Fox News Digital at Freedom Fest in Las Vegas to discuss the state of the American economy, New York City’s social scene, and the policies of the Trump administration.
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“First of all, New York City has had a reputation in the past for nominating hard-line candidates, including an allegedly Communist-only member of Congress in the late 1940s. So there’s that coverage there. But more importantly, I think it shows that people, a lot of people, are not satisfied.
The 78-year-old deputy of the publishing house said that the left is better organized than its liberal colleagues.
“We have to get the message out,” he said. “And one thing the left has learned is that you try to live on the moral high ground. Even if you destroy people’s lives, kill millions of people under socialism, communism, your intentions were good.
“So they’re trying to play the morality card. And so it’s not enough to say, ‘Well, free enterprise gives you more prosperity.’ You should also put on the plane that free enterprise is ethical. It is based on freedom, based on allowing people to be creative, or as Lincoln put it, improve your life.”
After Trump’s Mount Rushmore speech and his portrayal of the internal threat of Communism, Forbes agrees, citing another US president.
“Whatever you call it, communism, socialism, extreme leftism, anti-Semitism, it’s all the same disease,” Forbes said. “Abraham Lincoln put it best in the 1800s. He said, ‘It will not be foreign forces that destroy the United States. It will be things we do within.’
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), the sixteenth president of the United States, was president during the American Civil War of 1861-1865. His greatest act was issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, ending slavery, in 1863. He was assassinated shortly after the war on April 14, 1865, by actor John Wilkes Booth. (Photo by © CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)
Forbes suggested that many wrongly blame the problems on free markets, when they should be blaming government policies:
“What happens when governments start to make mistakes and do things that people don’t like and that harm people’s chances to succeed, disrupt society, blame capitalism. They blame it on free markets,” he said. “So they help destroy free markets and say, ‘Your cause is the victim.’
Prosperity and innovation can only thrive with freedom, says Forbes. Although capitalism is not perfect, it has led to innovations that improve our lives, according to Forbes.
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“Take your hand,” he said. “If you were talking 30 years ago [that your] grandma could use a supercomputer, you would get some weird looks. Now we take it for granted. The first one was just 40 years ago, it cost $3,995, it weighed like a brick, about the size of a shoebox. And today we have handhelds that are truly supercomputers that can do anything anywhere. And in real terms, they are getting cheaper and cheaper. So that is a miracle of human ingenuity. And the amazing thing is that we take it for granted. “
Forbes has long been an advocate of sound money, and a prominent critic of the Federal Reserve:
The Federal Reserve sets the country’s monetary policy and influences borrowing costs throughout the economy. (Annabelle GORDON / AFP via Getty Images)
“Start with the Federal Reserve, the idea that prosperity causes inflation. Experience shows time and time again, it’s complete nonsense. So when the economy starts doing well, you hear the central bank muttering, ‘Is the economy burning?’ as if the economy is a machine,” said Forbes.
“So ask yourself, when your income improves, do you start feeling hot? Do you start sweating at night? You know, ‘Get rid of it because I’m overheating? No, it’s weird,'” she said.
The central bank’s role is to maintain the integrity of the dollar, not to manage economic activity by trying to manipulate interest rates, according to Forbes.
“Yet most free traders, for example, recognize that rent controls distort markets and end up costing more and giving people less money,” noted Forbes. “Well, what is interest control? It’s a form of rent control. They were charging interest. You would rent money.”
His prescription for handling Trump is simple:
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“At home, go for a new round of tax cuts. Lower tax rates for individuals and businesses,” Forbes said. “Taxes are a price. So, raise it. Congress may not pass it, but you have an issue to take to the voters.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks to reporters during a news conference in New York, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Selling such a program to the public can be done through clever marketing, adds Forbes.
“Put out examples of people who have benefited greatly from not paying overtime, not taxing tips, and say, remember those old late-night TV commercials. [where hawkers would say] ‘But wait, is there more?’ They might say, ‘But wait, there’s more. We will have a big tax cut. Everyone will benefit.’
“And let’s continue to remove the law,” he concluded. “Go that way, and good things will happen.”
