Vance’s economic vision collides with one of Washington’s most powerful free-market groups

On the Michael Knowles Show, Vance argued Republicans should move beyond the free-market consensus that dominated the party for decades, saying Trump’s use of tariffs and industrial policy to rebuild American manufacturing would define conservative economics going forward.

“The economy is a tool to service the dignity of the human person,” Vance said. “If a set of economic policies make it easier for a person to raise a family, to earn a living wage, to give back to their community, to maybe go to church on Sunday, or to actually spend some leisure time building the kind of life that matters, that is the sort of thing we want to be supportive of.”

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“With all due respect, Mr Vice President you are dead wrong about both Milton Friedman and Alexander Hamilton,” McIntosh wrote on X in response to Vance’s interview. “Both of them promoted free markets as the way to make American [sic] Great.”

The criticism matters because Club for Growth has long been one of the Republican Party’s biggest champions of lower taxes, deregulation, free markets, and limited government. The group’s super PAC plans to spend $175 million during next year’s midterm elections.

Joe Kildea, a spokesman for Club for Growth, told the Washington Examiner that the group “supports Trump’s pro-growth agenda” and that McIntosh’s comments were intended as a defense of Friedman’s economic philosophy rather than a broader criticism of the vice president.

The exchange highlights one of the biggest debates inside today’s Republican Party: whether Trump’s brand of tariffs and industrial policy should replace the free-market approach that defined the GOP for much of the Reagan era.

McIntosh’s comments were also not the first time the Club for Growth has found itself at odds with either Trump or Vance.

The group opposed Vance’s 2022 run for Senate, choosing instead to back former Ohio state Treasurer Josh Mandel. Club for Growth and its affiliated network similarly spent millions to oppose Trump’s own 2024 presidential primary campaign before reconciling with Trump later in the primary campaign.

Speaking at the 2024 Club for Growth retreat in Palm Beach, Florida, Trump claimed that he and McIntosh had frequently disagreed on candidates but were on the same page heading into the general election that year.

“We had an argument about a couple of people that you know well, and that broke us up for about a year,” he reportedly told donors at the event. “And then we had one that we mutually agreed on, which was surprising to people — a good candidate, however, who is going to win. And then we did a couple of others. And now we’re back in love, we’re deeply in love.”

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McIntosh also said early into Trump’s term that Club for Growth was working closely with the White House to advance Trump’s planned tax cuts.

“We’re definitely going to be working closely with his policy team to get the tax bill through,” he told Fox Business at the time.