Trump Is Not as Invincible as He Seems

❈ ❈ ❈

Trump: Fast and Furious

Atilio Borón

Donald Trump’s return to the White House and the signals he sent from the moment of his inauguration (which continued late into the night at the unexpected press conference that took place in the Oval Office) were tinged with an alarming mixture of arrogance and overconfidence. If anyone still doubts that the United States is the center of an empire, the show put on by the New York tycoon dispels all doubts. But the radical nature of his proposals and his verbiage express, better than anything else, the harsh reality that U.S. imperialism is experiencing an inexorable decline.

This is not a subject that the hegemonic media and the parties of the ruling plutocracy usually talk about, except in hermetic conclaves when the imperial administrators cannot lie to each other. They know that the great world chessboard, to use Zbigniew Brzezinski’s graphic image, has changed and that with the illusion of eternal unipolarity that would characterize the entire 21st century—“the American Century”—vanished, what remains is the laborious construction of a damage limitation strategy to preserve something of the once uncontested hegemony in an international arena characterized by the insurgence of new protagonists in global economy and politics.

Trump’s campaign slogan since 2016, MAGA, reveals this need for the United States to be great again, a tacit confession that, even though it is still an enormously important actor—especially in the military arena—it no longer has the omnipotence it had in the past. China, the main commercial or financial partner of almost one hundred and fifty countries, is undoubtedly the power that sets the pace of the world economy and the planet’s industrial workshop. Russia has risen from the ashes and the almost twenty thousand unilateral coercive measures taken by Washington, especially after the outbreak of war with Ukraine, have had a paradoxical effect: its economy is the fastest growing in Europe, well above Germany, France and the United Kingdom. And, even more importantly, Moscow said goodbye to Europe, producing, together with China and India, its partners in the BRICS, a significant reorientation of the world economy. The original BRICS, not counting the new countries that have recently joined, already surpass the G7 countries in terms of economic volume and the projections for the next five years are even more encouraging. Trump plans to fight them with tariffs and duties, but that will only deepen inflationary pressures within the United States.

In this new terrain, where Trump has made all kinds of threats, the White House will also have to deal with the technological backwardness of its country, especially in relation to the formidable progress of China in the broad field of computing, robotics and the so-called “computer sciences”, a topic that was underlined in the memorable speech that Jimmy Carter gave at the Sunday school of the Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia, in April 2021 . He said that “in the 242 years of its existence, the United States has only been at peace for 16 years. Since 1979, do you know how many times China has been at war with someone? None.” And he concluded:

we have wasted some 3 trillion dollars on military spending instead of investing it, as China did, in technological and scientific developments, and that is why they have taken the lead.

The obsession with China had clear repercussions for Latin America and the Caribbean. The threat to take back the Panama Canal for the United States because “we gave it to Panama and not to China” reveals a lack of knowledge of the current reality and of the long negotiations that culminated in the Torrijos-Carter Treaties, which guaranteed the neutrality of that waterway but also Panamanian control of the Canal. The attempt to sanction countries and ships that operate in the Peruvian mega-port of Chancay, built by the Chinese and operated by a Chinese state-owned company, Cosco Shipping, in association with a Peruvian company linked to mining, is another example of this.

China’s commercial projection in the Arctic, as well as Russia’s military one, precipitated the claim to buy Greenland, which was responded to with an undignified response, due to its groveling, by the Danish government. More serious has been the insinuation that he would designate the Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations, which according to U.S. legislation (in violation of international law) arrogates the extraterritoriality of its jurisdiction and could give rise to an armed attack on Mexican territory. Or the desire to deport millions of undocumented immigrants and militarize the southern border, which would cause a severe economic crisis in states such as California and Texas, to name just two, and a humanitarian crisis of major proportions on both sides of the Rio Grande.

The word “invasion” used to describe the entry of immigrants, and his description of them as “criminals, drug traffickers and rapists” reveal the profile of a xenophobic and racist character, as well as a misogynist, homophobic and deeply authoritarian one. He already was this in his first term, but then he had an environment that partly moderated these aggressive impulses. Not today. Marco Rubio is a man consumed by his hatred of Cuba and its revolution, just like Mauricio Claver-Carone. His cabinet is dominated by hawks, the hucksters of the military-industrial complex, financial crooks and diehard supporters of Zionism. It was no coincidence that at the ceremony at the One Arena there was a delegation of relatives of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas. On the other hand, there was absolutely no one representing the more than fifty thousand deaths caused by the genocide unleashed by the Israeli government. Finally, in his immediate circle of advisors and officials, there are thirteen billionaires, starting with Elon Musk, an admirer of the German neo-Nazi party who just yesterday saluted the crowd with a Hitler salute. There is no precedent for such a significant downgrade in the history of American democracy.

There was a striking silence regarding Cuba and Venezuela, although it was clear that one of the first decisions he would make as soon as he was sworn in as president would be to reintroduce the largest of the Antilles to the list of countries that sponsor terrorism, an unspeakable infamy only understandable in the light of the bicentennial American aspiration to take over the island of Cuba. Regarding Venezuela, he said that the United States does not need the South American country’s oil because they, the Americans, have even more and are going to extract and export it. There he will have several problems because there are six states, including California and New York, where fracking is banned.

Arrogant said he is not worried about Latin America because he made the crude error of saying that “they need us, but we don’t need them”, so he expects their governments to accept whatever Washington decides without question. In short, there would be many more issues to analyze in a bombastic, foundational (“today is Liberation Day,” he said), warmongering speech, where he proudly announced that the United States is withdrawing from the Paris Agreement on climate change and also from the WHO. You don’t have to be a fortune teller to predict that as soon as he has to move from words to deeds, the obstacles he will encounter in that transition will be formidable, both inside and, above all, outside the United States because, despite the conservative right and the colonized spirits that abound in Latin America, the structure of world power has changed and that transition, now complete, is irreversible.

Trump can continue to make his threats and continue with his denial of climate change while a dreadful fire destroys part of Los Angeles, which should force Trump and the techno-feudal barons who accompany him to seriously reflect on climate change. But they won’t. We must prepare for very hard times, not only in Latin America and the Caribbean; but all over the world.

(Atilio A. Borón is a researcher and writer on politics, economics, international relations and imperialism, with a primary focus on Latin America and the Caribbean. Courtesy: The blog of Atilio Borón; translation Resumen Latinoamericano—English.)

❈ ❈ ❈

‘Bosses Back in Command’: Capitalist Oligarchy Fuels New Trump Government

C.J. Atkins

“One of the most ‘democratic’ republics in the world is the United States of America, yet nowhere is the power of capital, the power of a handful of multimillionaires over the whole of society, so crude and so openly corrupt as in America. Once capital exists, it dominates the whole of society.”

– V.I. Lenin, 1919

Last November, four days after the presidential election, Fox News personality Jimmy Failla said Donald Trump beat Kamala Harris because he had a “secret weapon.” That weapon? The working class, at least according to Failla.

In this commentator’s telling, Trump “connected with working-class voters on unprecedented levels…at a time when far too many people feel ignored by Washington elites.”

The same narrative was being pushed again on Inauguration Day, with split-screen coverage on right-wing social media contrasting Democratic Party lawmakers in their stuffy-looking suits on one side and everyday Americans in their Carhartt hoodies and blue jeans on the other, eating hot dogs and popcorn as they awaited Trump’s arrival at Capital One Arena.

The message was clear: Trump fights the “political establishment” to lift up the masses, those who work for a living and struggle to get by.

If we’re being honest, we must admit that Failla, Fox News, and the rest of the far-right echo chamber aren’t telling a complete lie. There’s no denying Trump managed to lock in the support of a substantial number of working-class Americans (mostly but by no means exclusively white ones)—otherwise, there’s no way he could have scored 77 million votes.

But to argue that Trump is the workers’ champion, that he’s a warrior battling the powerful and wealthy on behalf of the rest of us? That’s where the story completely falls apart.

Trump’s real constituency

Trump’s real people, the ones he fights hardest for, weren’t sitting in the bleachers at Capital One Arena.

No, Trump’s real people were the moneyed interests plopped down in the chairs right behind him during the inauguration ceremonies. Lined up in a row, in spots usually reserved for close family or former presidents, were the tech titans of the 21st century economy.

Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai—add up their estimated wealth and you get close to a trillion dollars of combined economic power sitting on the stage. They were the perfect image of capitalist politics in the U.S. today. These billionaires invested hundreds of millions of dollars in their candidate, and they came to D.C. to celebrate their conquest.

Of course, no matter which of the two parties is in office in Washington, it’s always the capitalist class that is in power. The second Trump administration, however, is taking it to the next level.

No longer are the leading lights of finance, tech, and commerce content to simply buy influence in the government via lobbying dollars and campaign contributions alone. Now, they’re directly taking over the instruments of the state themselves to guarantee the conditions for their increased profits and power. In addition to the billionaire president, at least a dozen other billionaires and multimillionaires are set to take over government posts.

• Soros Fund Manager Scott Bessent as Treasury Secretary
• Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick as Commerce Secretary
• Wrestling promoter Linda McMahon as Education Secretary
• Former JPMorgan Chase and Fiserv executive Frank Bisiganano in charge of the Social Security Administration
• “Paypal Mafia” boss David Sacks as the new AI and cryptocurrency czar
• Financier Warren Stephens in the U.K. ambassador spot
• Conair executive Leandro Rizzuto, Jr., at the Organization of American States
• Real estate tycoon (and Jared’s daddy) Charles Kushner as ambassador to France
• Another property mogul, Steve Witkoff, as “peace” envoy to the Middle East
• Quack TV doctor Mehmet Oz as administrator for Medicare and Medicaid
• Crypto trader Kelly Loeffler heading up the Small Business Administration

The list goes on.

The new Trump cabinet is expected to be worth at least $7 billion, dwarfing the wealth of his own record-breaking first cabinet, which came in at $3.2 billion, and leaving the combined $118 million net worth of Joe Biden’s cabinet looking like pocket change by comparison. And that’s just the cabinet; throw in those tapped to lead new agencies, like Musk at the crypto-named DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency), and the calculations soar higher still—well north of $450 billion.

State monopoly capitalism on steroids

The Trump administration is giving the capitalist class personal control over the economic powers of the state, which it will use to manipulate interest rates, tariffs, taxes, regulations (and de-regulations), and all the other tools of government, with the aim of enriching themselves at the expense of the rest of us. It’s state monopoly capitalism on steroids.

But unlike the typical capitalist state, which intervenes in the economy to stabilize the system on behalf of the entire bourgeoisie, the Trump government has been captured by particular sectors—high tech (which has shifted sharply to the right), crypto and speculative capital, fossil fuels, large segments of finance and banking, parts of the pharma industry, and “small capital,” like mid-level U.S.-based manufacturing and independent businesses.

Others, like defense contractors, always play both sides of the aisle and make money no matter who’s running Washington. That will continue, but in the boardrooms of the arms makers, hopes are surely running high that more wars and international tensions (especially with China) are on the horizon. Trump may peddle himself as the “peace president,” but the weapons companies aren’t worried at all.

Politically, the character of the new regime also symbolizes the initiation of a descent toward fascism.

The most reactionary and violence-prone of capitalists are moving to occupy the seats of power, with Trump’s MAGA mass movement providing a support base that—when combined with the financial power of the monopolies and the philosophical influence of the free-market ideologues and Evangelical fanatics—provides the means for splitting the working class and weakening bourgeois democracy, limited as it may be.

The next time some publisher releases an illustrated version of The Communist Manifesto, they could just put the photo of the billionaire tech bros at the inauguration next to Marx’s memorable line: “The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the whole affairs of the bourgeoisie.”

Indeed, if ever there was a good visual argument for socialism, for the need to wrest power away from the economic elites of the ruling class, it was Trump’s inauguration. The months leading up to it and the days since have been nothing short of an orgy of greed—a celebration of corruption, exploitation, and unbridled power.

Million-dollar bounties were paid up by dozens of CEOs to fund Trump’s coronation. The ruling family inflated their own personal fortunes, meanwhile, by raking in legal bribes and grifting their followers via their $TRUMP and $MELANIA crypto meme coins. Executive orders gift-wrapped for the oil and pharmaceutical companies, among others, were delivered on a silver platter by the White House occupant on day one.

Miriam Adelson and other big donors who back Israel’s war received a wink and a smile, with strong signals that, despite bragging about winning the Gaza ceasefire, the new government will support the eventual annexation of the West Bank and the opening of Gaza to settlement and sell-off.

Tax cuts for the wealthy, wage-crushing layoffs, and privatization of everything from the Post Office to Social Security are dangled as the prizes still to come.

In an article describing the situation in the country, The Wall Street Journal, a barometer of ruling class thinking, summed it up succinctly: “The bosses are back in command.”

Trump regime not as solid as it looks

Shifting the balance of power is going to be an uphill slog, requiring unity of the existing anti-MAGA coalition, the peeling away of parts of the working class and middle-income strata from the Trump camp, and the skillful use of any splits within the capitalist class—of which there will be plenty.

Marx once said, “One capitalist always kills many.” He was referring to the process of concentration and centralization of capital inherent to monopolization. The same saying could also be used to refer to the circular firing squad that we’re likely to see Trump’s regime devolve into, however, if his first administration is any indicator. Firings, resignations, back-stabbings, factional divisions in Congress—all that and more will destabilize his administration and present opportunities.

Already, Musk’s DOGE partner, Vivek Ramaswamy, has been thrown overboard due to disagreements over whether to trim government via cost-cutting or deregulation. The two were both at odds with Stephen Miller, Steve Bannon, and others in the MAGA cabal over which immigrants to target. The techno-capitalist crowd want exemptions for the educated H1-B visa holders their business relies on, while the hardcore fascists like Miller and Bannon push to completely seal the borders.

And cracks in the pact between Trump and Musk were appearing even before the inauguration, as the president-elect bristled at media chatter that Musk was actually calling the shots or that he would be Trump’s co-president. The wannabe dictator never likes sharing the spotlight.

So, while the new administration is making a big show of its power and executing a shock-and-awe blitzkrieg-style assault on working people and democracy with a flood of executive orders, Trump’s government is not as invincible as it might seem.

He and his coterie of billionaire politicos will definitely cause some serious damage, but soon enough, it will become obvious to many who voted for him that his policies aren’t delivering a better life for them, their families, or their communities.

The resistance has to be built up—in the streets, in city councils, state legislatures, and in Congress—to frustrate Trump’s schemes and prove that the people can win again. Contradiction, competition, and struggle are always the defining features of capitalism, especially of capitalism in crisis.

(C.J. Atkins is the managing editor at People’s World. He holds a Ph.D. in political science from York University in Toronto and has a research and teaching background in political economy and the politics and ideas of the American left. Courtesy: People’s World, a voice for progressive change and socialism in the United States. It provides news and analysis of, by, and for the labor and democratic movements.)