Nolan I'm glad you said this because I cannot agree more. People really fail to consider the simplest solution: the man is robbing everyone - including his own allies in business - because that's what bandits do. It's really that simple. Trump has no vision, no ideology, beyond make himself insanely rich and feel smart and clever while doing so. That's it.
I agree. He might make sure some of his oligarchs get some benefits but only if it makes him look good. Last year I told some people that, "He's going to rob us blind." They all said, "Oh, he can't do that." Such a small, empty boy that no amount of money can fill.
I read somewhere else (I can't remember where but I don't want to take credit as my own idea) that essentially what Trump is doing is tearing down the existing state in order to create what they called a "personalist" or "patrimonialist" regime in its place i.e. transform the existing system in which at least in theory what matters is the title or the office not the individual to one in which everything is based on personal loyalty to him and his lackies as you can already see with his references to the Justice Department as "his lawyers" etc.
I don't think Trump is 'trying' to do anything...He is simply a mindless algorithm that dismantles democracies because that's what the algorithm DOES...There IS no mind behind Trump that is any more sophisticated than the mind of an animal with no concept of anything that isn't RIGHT in front of them at that VERY moment...There is no continuous mode of thought and assessment, just a VERY simple 'if/then flow chart of actions and reactions they trigger...In a very true and sick sense, THIS is the source of his power...Humans with REAL agency (he has none) and the ability to reason HAVE NO DEFENSE against someone who has neither...He's a mindless shark that depends on the safety in numbers provided by the millions or remoras that fed off his chaos
From Europe: Watching the effects of the administration's global "trade policies" makes one see what might be described as the newest (however clumsy) American/capitalist/colonialist attempt to export its expenses/liabilities, while importing capital resources from (all) other nations. In TrumpWorld, of course, liabilities (honored debts to banks, for example) are for "suckers" including the masses of (foreign and domestic) middle- and underclass "marks" of this strange, new American scam...uh...I mean "dream."
The internet is going to be the real gamechanger when that time comes...After WWll, it was remarkably easy for bad actors and Nazis to slip back into the shadows, soon to be forgotten because of a lack of the kinds of records we have available NOW...For better and/or worse...EVERYTHING in the age of the internet is forever...
"What did you do in the war daddy?" is gonna be a LOT easier to 'research', so to speak
Great summary article of the damage to everyone and the narcissistic psychopathy of our President and his subservient worker bees and the ultrarich sychophants. I'm desperately trying to maintain a little hope in the face of the destruction. I don't believe we will be able to rebuild in my lifetime ( I'm 73)and we will never be a social democracy where people matter.
I am 24 and even I am skeptical if it can be done in mine as well, but we have to keep struggling and hoping that something better can come from all of this.
Well put! All of it! I'm starting to get convinced that there's an additional element here of the crypto-libertrians that Musk and Tiel seem to represent. They want to transform the government into a Network State or a government that operates on the ideas of Yarvin, et al. I started reading "Network State" where these ideas are developed; but I just couldn't take it. What a tech-brained piece of garbage. I have a feeling we are about to see the Grafton experiment (cf. "A Libertarian walks into a Bear") played out at the national level. And we saw how well that all went. Again, as W. Gibson once said, "the cyberpunk future was a warning...not a suggestion".
At first, it just seemed like chaos and the overwehlm strategy to me. And then I found the podcast "Tech won't Save Us" and and started listening to folks who have had an eye on this space for the last decade. The plan is starting to make a lot more chilling sense. And it's really amazing just how out of touch "thinkers" like Balaji -- author of "The Network State" -- or the Dark Enlightenment crowd are. DOGE is going to intentially break everything in the name of this stuff; and it's going to fail very hard.
Reading any news is so rough right now I so deeply appreciate your approach to writing about what’s going on in the US and how it relates to the world and our history. To say I need the chuckles from your perfectly placed cursing and explanations about how the crazy decisions this administration is making are harming everyone would be the understatement of the millennia. Thank you so much for your insight and humor! They’re saving my sanity.
Haha fuckers! I laughed out loud! Black Friday revisited, so much wealth on paper went poof! Your analysis and cheekiness here will stand the test of time. thank you
I've been saying this for like a decade now. Liberalism, which is what the Democratic Party represents, is incredibly lucrative to America's ruling class. It's all of the full-throated, pro-business stuff, with a touch of regulation that keeps things from going off the rail. Literally a perfect environment for people like Musk, Bezos, etc. to reach unimaginable levels of wealth. If they had a single ounce of self-awareness, they would be cheering on the likes of Clinton, Obama and Biden. But the thing is, conservative media has warped their brains just like any other average Fox News viewer. They are not immune to the propaganda, even if it means the destruction of their own best-interests.
There's definitely part of my brain that gets a little joy out of seeing this self-destruction, until I remember that it's all a house of cards and us normies are at the bottom, waiting to be crushed by their hubris.
It’s hard to pick what I hate the most about Thiel’s, Yarvin’s, and Musk’s technocratic fantasies, but near the top would have to be their belief that they achieved their success on their own, in a vacuum. No they didn’t. It was liberal democracy that provided the fertile ground to grow their wealth to unprecedented levels.
After Trump and his cronies break the Federal government, making it essentially dysfunctional, won’t they just privatize the whole thing? Or as much as they can? Because obviously government no longer works (because they broke it) and only private sector “efficiency” can make it work again. Isn’t destruction, followed by privatization, the point,
I mean: it might be, but even that is I think assuming too much of a 4D chess move going on. It doesn’t feel as if some of the things that have been referred to here are supposed to be replaced EVEN THOUGH they are „load bearing walls“. Sure, NASA might interest Musk, the nuclear apparatus is of interest to Thiel and his cronies, but by and large the aim seems to be destruction without even the plan to privatize after. I think their ideology might dictate that if there’s a reasonable demand a privatized version might pop up by itself, but even though I am a cynic I am much inclined to think that I would still be shocked if I actually asked about their plans - I have the suspicion that many of them are merely „AI will solve it.“.
Wow thanks very real Hamilton Nolan sub stack! I cannot wait to check it out as you are obviously very smart and savvy when it comes to figuring out who is easily fooled.
'Privatization' implies 'private property' and all the rights and privileges that go with private property. But once Felon Trump destroys the rule of law (which he is well on the way to doing), there is nothing to protect private property. Trump's lawlessness will spread, both out and down. What we have is President Al Capone.
"Trump is doing something different: He is making decisions that will clearly harm the American economy, in both the short and long term."
While this is obviously correct, it obfuscates a key point here: Trump appears to genuinely believe all the ridiculous horseshit he's doing – tariffs, slashing the federal bureaucracy to shreds, eliminating "illegals," etc. – *is* in America's best interests, including its financial interests.
He's said he thinks Americans will be "fine" with choppy economic waters, but two caveats here: first, he's likely deluding himself as to the levels of "pain" even Extreme MAGA will accept. (He's already getting blowback for various cuts to social services even in red states.) More importantly, Trump's implicit promise to his followers is that these choppy waters will only last for a short while. I have zero doubt he thinks all the economic strife he's producing will just "magically disappear" someday not far away – which is exactly what he said about Covid, and we saw how that went – but, yet again, he's deluding himself.
While I fully agree that Trump likely suffers from multiple psychological disorders on top of his obvious NPD, I don't think *he* thinks his actions will tank the American economy. And that companies will "absorb" the tariffs rather than pass them along to consumers. And that he's ushering in a triumphant period in which American corporations will – at long last – be freed of the shackles thrust upon them by evil leftists working jointly for Soros, Satan, and supporters of DEI.
WE all know this is batshit. At least *some* of Trump's cabinet might also know it but give zero fucks. Trump of course has no clue – BUT he'll likely be finding out in the very near future just how badly he's screwing up literally everything.
Which brings me to my point: of the myriad dick-measuring sticks Trump uses, an important one has always been healthy stock markets. It's STILL healthy stock markets. Trump has given zero hint that he doesn't believe that, albeit only for US-based corporations. As America's "most brilliant CEO president ever," in Trump's own severely addled mind, a legit market crash – even into mere recession territory, never mind depression – is ABSOLUTELY a worst-case scenario.
He truly thinks the auto tariffs in particular will merely result in more cars being built in the US, starting immediately, never mind the impossibility of anything of the sort.
And when those precious stock markets both tank & continue tanking, that could quite realistically be his undoing. President Musk has already paid dearly for his MAGA obsession, in the form of reducing his net worth by $150B or so within three months. (An unprecedented feat!) Steve Bannon may despise Musk, but much of Trump's primary support comes from the billionaire class.
Trump worships billionaires, as we all know, and explicitly wants that worship in return. He sure as fuck won't get it if he manages to nuke their net worth – quite the opposite. He can't see it most likely because he's blinded by a combo of power & rage, but he WILL soon see the unavoidable.
The only question is how much collateral damage he'll suffer.
I agree with some of what you say here. I really do think people underestimate the degree to which Trump believes all of this crazy stuff will actually be good for the economy. I saw this really well written thing by Jacobin writer Chris Maisano where he was answering the question of how all this stuff Trump is doing will actually help the material needs of his base (here talking about his ordinary people base not billionaires). And Maisano pointed out that Trump and these people really do believe that so-called "illegals" are the reason for ordinary Americans economic problems: that they take up housing so if we deport them then housing will come down, that they take jobs that white Americans will now be able to take, that they take government benefits which drives inflation etc. They really believe that mass deportation will come with an obvious economic benefit. But much like tariffs etc. won't help rich capitalists deportations won't help working class people. So it will be interesting to see what happens when benefits fail to materialize
I saw an image of a cake yesterday (March 31) with the following message: “April Fools Day has been canceled. The entire year has been a joke!” I quite agree.
"Their own greed has led them into a trap." Yes, that makes sense.
Over decades, the GOP manufactured a massive propaganda machine to convince the public their policies were in the public's interest. They became masters of big ideas and potent imagery. They left the Democrats in the dust, with their dusty intellectual arguments and emotionally limp centrist talking points.
This machine grew and grew. Telling the Big Lie became an addiction, perhaps. Where the longer you were living in it, the more you believed it yourself. As the Orange King came to power, it still seemed to be working — show fealty, whip up righteous anger in yourself and others, and you get more. And in Term 1 it probably did work for them. Why not go for a Term 2? It might be more EXTREME! — but that could be good. It sounds good, it feels good — a little aggressiveness can't hurt.
But what happens now? Are they just too invested? There has to be a degree of this for the voters and the business community — loss aversion makes it hard to let go once you've already bought in. But almost nobody knew what they were buying. And you're right: the force at the center is incoherent and absurd, incapable of thinking past the next day or wave of ego gratification. And he seems to have that effect on the people around him.
Let's see what happens next. Liberation Day is coming!
I think about this a lot. There’s a lot of “they knew what they were voting for!” comments out there, and I disagree w/ that pretty strongly. My pops is a Republican voter, and had no fucking clue any of this was gonna be the result, and I’d hesitate to call him “low info”. He reads the WSJ, chats politics w/ his fellow country club repubs, etc.
In keeping with your closing sentiment ("If it’s any consolation, all the capitalists who led us down this road are going to lose a shitload of money. Ha ha, fuckers."), here is a haiku I came across written for tRump when he was convicted of all those felonies and it looked like he *might* go to prison; perhaps our friends in the broligarchy will find solace in contemplating it's meaning:
For the past dozen or so years I have been asking myself this question with regard to both the GOP and the Democratic party; Who's party is it? My assumption has been that the plutocrats/oligarchs/stinking-rich wholly own the GOP, and had veto power over Dems. getting too progressive for their liking. I think that view held up pretty well... until now.
I absolutely agree; Trump is insane. Even worse, Trump is an insane mafioso wannabe. The plutocrats were fine with Trump and his MAGA know-nothings back in 2016 so long as they got their deregulation and tax cuts. But Trump turned the GOP into his own private cult and the plutocrats lost control of their Frankenstein monster. So now the plutocrat's creation is going to turn on them and we will all suffer mightily.
Amen! Very sad that such a large number of Americans do not recognize a basic, obvious conman when they see one. Trump is just a sleazy conman. He has stated that he disdains his base, but he knows and uses suckers when he sees them.
Very good. Thank you for the cogent and, in my opinion, accurate diagnosis of this problem. Americans have allowed the corporate bottom line to substitute itself for public good. Voters have been bamboozled by corporations into conflating the public good with business' profits.
A perfect example of this is how Republicans in congress are backing the DOGE rip-off. My Republican senator and representative initially responded to my demand for services in defense of my Social Security with inane double-speak about what great cost-cutting DOGE was doing. I responded back with a tutorial on checks and balances, plus how they were not elected to encourage me to get my mind right and bow down to Trump. Basically I called their bluff and told them to stop pissing in my ear and telling me it's raining. The result .... radio silence.
Nolan I'm glad you said this because I cannot agree more. People really fail to consider the simplest solution: the man is robbing everyone - including his own allies in business - because that's what bandits do. It's really that simple. Trump has no vision, no ideology, beyond make himself insanely rich and feel smart and clever while doing so. That's it.
I agree. He might make sure some of his oligarchs get some benefits but only if it makes him look good. Last year I told some people that, "He's going to rob us blind." They all said, "Oh, he can't do that." Such a small, empty boy that no amount of money can fill.
I read somewhere else (I can't remember where but I don't want to take credit as my own idea) that essentially what Trump is doing is tearing down the existing state in order to create what they called a "personalist" or "patrimonialist" regime in its place i.e. transform the existing system in which at least in theory what matters is the title or the office not the individual to one in which everything is based on personal loyalty to him and his lackies as you can already see with his references to the Justice Department as "his lawyers" etc.
I don't think Trump is 'trying' to do anything...He is simply a mindless algorithm that dismantles democracies because that's what the algorithm DOES...There IS no mind behind Trump that is any more sophisticated than the mind of an animal with no concept of anything that isn't RIGHT in front of them at that VERY moment...There is no continuous mode of thought and assessment, just a VERY simple 'if/then flow chart of actions and reactions they trigger...In a very true and sick sense, THIS is the source of his power...Humans with REAL agency (he has none) and the ability to reason HAVE NO DEFENSE against someone who has neither...He's a mindless shark that depends on the safety in numbers provided by the millions or remoras that fed off his chaos
From Europe: Watching the effects of the administration's global "trade policies" makes one see what might be described as the newest (however clumsy) American/capitalist/colonialist attempt to export its expenses/liabilities, while importing capital resources from (all) other nations. In TrumpWorld, of course, liabilities (honored debts to banks, for example) are for "suckers" including the masses of (foreign and domestic) middle- and underclass "marks" of this strange, new American scam...uh...I mean "dream."
David Roth at Defector had an unexpected bit of optimism (I know, right?) in his latest piece:
𝘐𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵, 𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘩 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘪𝘵 𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘥, 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘪𝘵—𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘣𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧-𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘵 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘥 𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘦.
Link: https://defector.com/kingdom-of-the-biters. Business will have a short memory once/if the end of this comes, we have to have a long one.
We made a little progress during COVID, look at how bizness freaked out about that.
Really? Feels to me like we still haven’t recovered from Covid. The kids especially are still not ok. And they are our future.
" we have to have a long one."
A-fuckin'-MEN!
The internet is going to be the real gamechanger when that time comes...After WWll, it was remarkably easy for bad actors and Nazis to slip back into the shadows, soon to be forgotten because of a lack of the kinds of records we have available NOW...For better and/or worse...EVERYTHING in the age of the internet is forever...
"What did you do in the war daddy?" is gonna be a LOT easier to 'research', so to speak
Great summary article of the damage to everyone and the narcissistic psychopathy of our President and his subservient worker bees and the ultrarich sychophants. I'm desperately trying to maintain a little hope in the face of the destruction. I don't believe we will be able to rebuild in my lifetime ( I'm 73)and we will never be a social democracy where people matter.
I am 24 and even I am skeptical if it can be done in mine as well, but we have to keep struggling and hoping that something better can come from all of this.
Well put! All of it! I'm starting to get convinced that there's an additional element here of the crypto-libertrians that Musk and Tiel seem to represent. They want to transform the government into a Network State or a government that operates on the ideas of Yarvin, et al. I started reading "Network State" where these ideas are developed; but I just couldn't take it. What a tech-brained piece of garbage. I have a feeling we are about to see the Grafton experiment (cf. "A Libertarian walks into a Bear") played out at the national level. And we saw how well that all went. Again, as W. Gibson once said, "the cyberpunk future was a warning...not a suggestion".
Important comment ... theseNetwork staters as well as DEO/Christian Nationalists are also huge in pushing Trump's dystopian agenda.
At first, it just seemed like chaos and the overwehlm strategy to me. And then I found the podcast "Tech won't Save Us" and and started listening to folks who have had an eye on this space for the last decade. The plan is starting to make a lot more chilling sense. And it's really amazing just how out of touch "thinkers" like Balaji -- author of "The Network State" -- or the Dark Enlightenment crowd are. DOGE is going to intentially break everything in the name of this stuff; and it's going to fail very hard.
Yeah, AI godhead technofeudalism used as rationalization to crime.
Reading any news is so rough right now I so deeply appreciate your approach to writing about what’s going on in the US and how it relates to the world and our history. To say I need the chuckles from your perfectly placed cursing and explanations about how the crazy decisions this administration is making are harming everyone would be the understatement of the millennia. Thank you so much for your insight and humor! They’re saving my sanity.
Thank you Emily.
Haha fuckers! I laughed out loud! Black Friday revisited, so much wealth on paper went poof! Your analysis and cheekiness here will stand the test of time. thank you
I've been saying this for like a decade now. Liberalism, which is what the Democratic Party represents, is incredibly lucrative to America's ruling class. It's all of the full-throated, pro-business stuff, with a touch of regulation that keeps things from going off the rail. Literally a perfect environment for people like Musk, Bezos, etc. to reach unimaginable levels of wealth. If they had a single ounce of self-awareness, they would be cheering on the likes of Clinton, Obama and Biden. But the thing is, conservative media has warped their brains just like any other average Fox News viewer. They are not immune to the propaganda, even if it means the destruction of their own best-interests.
There's definitely part of my brain that gets a little joy out of seeing this self-destruction, until I remember that it's all a house of cards and us normies are at the bottom, waiting to be crushed by their hubris.
It’s hard to pick what I hate the most about Thiel’s, Yarvin’s, and Musk’s technocratic fantasies, but near the top would have to be their belief that they achieved their success on their own, in a vacuum. No they didn’t. It was liberal democracy that provided the fertile ground to grow their wealth to unprecedented levels.
After Trump and his cronies break the Federal government, making it essentially dysfunctional, won’t they just privatize the whole thing? Or as much as they can? Because obviously government no longer works (because they broke it) and only private sector “efficiency” can make it work again. Isn’t destruction, followed by privatization, the point,
I mean: it might be, but even that is I think assuming too much of a 4D chess move going on. It doesn’t feel as if some of the things that have been referred to here are supposed to be replaced EVEN THOUGH they are „load bearing walls“. Sure, NASA might interest Musk, the nuclear apparatus is of interest to Thiel and his cronies, but by and large the aim seems to be destruction without even the plan to privatize after. I think their ideology might dictate that if there’s a reasonable demand a privatized version might pop up by itself, but even though I am a cynic I am much inclined to think that I would still be shocked if I actually asked about their plans - I have the suspicion that many of them are merely „AI will solve it.“.
Amen.
Wow thanks very real Hamilton Nolan sub stack! I cannot wait to check it out as you are obviously very smart and savvy when it comes to figuring out who is easily fooled.
'Privatization' implies 'private property' and all the rights and privileges that go with private property. But once Felon Trump destroys the rule of law (which he is well on the way to doing), there is nothing to protect private property. Trump's lawlessness will spread, both out and down. What we have is President Al Capone.
"Trump is doing something different: He is making decisions that will clearly harm the American economy, in both the short and long term."
While this is obviously correct, it obfuscates a key point here: Trump appears to genuinely believe all the ridiculous horseshit he's doing – tariffs, slashing the federal bureaucracy to shreds, eliminating "illegals," etc. – *is* in America's best interests, including its financial interests.
He's said he thinks Americans will be "fine" with choppy economic waters, but two caveats here: first, he's likely deluding himself as to the levels of "pain" even Extreme MAGA will accept. (He's already getting blowback for various cuts to social services even in red states.) More importantly, Trump's implicit promise to his followers is that these choppy waters will only last for a short while. I have zero doubt he thinks all the economic strife he's producing will just "magically disappear" someday not far away – which is exactly what he said about Covid, and we saw how that went – but, yet again, he's deluding himself.
While I fully agree that Trump likely suffers from multiple psychological disorders on top of his obvious NPD, I don't think *he* thinks his actions will tank the American economy. And that companies will "absorb" the tariffs rather than pass them along to consumers. And that he's ushering in a triumphant period in which American corporations will – at long last – be freed of the shackles thrust upon them by evil leftists working jointly for Soros, Satan, and supporters of DEI.
WE all know this is batshit. At least *some* of Trump's cabinet might also know it but give zero fucks. Trump of course has no clue – BUT he'll likely be finding out in the very near future just how badly he's screwing up literally everything.
Which brings me to my point: of the myriad dick-measuring sticks Trump uses, an important one has always been healthy stock markets. It's STILL healthy stock markets. Trump has given zero hint that he doesn't believe that, albeit only for US-based corporations. As America's "most brilliant CEO president ever," in Trump's own severely addled mind, a legit market crash – even into mere recession territory, never mind depression – is ABSOLUTELY a worst-case scenario.
He truly thinks the auto tariffs in particular will merely result in more cars being built in the US, starting immediately, never mind the impossibility of anything of the sort.
And when those precious stock markets both tank & continue tanking, that could quite realistically be his undoing. President Musk has already paid dearly for his MAGA obsession, in the form of reducing his net worth by $150B or so within three months. (An unprecedented feat!) Steve Bannon may despise Musk, but much of Trump's primary support comes from the billionaire class.
Trump worships billionaires, as we all know, and explicitly wants that worship in return. He sure as fuck won't get it if he manages to nuke their net worth – quite the opposite. He can't see it most likely because he's blinded by a combo of power & rage, but he WILL soon see the unavoidable.
The only question is how much collateral damage he'll suffer.
I agree with some of what you say here. I really do think people underestimate the degree to which Trump believes all of this crazy stuff will actually be good for the economy. I saw this really well written thing by Jacobin writer Chris Maisano where he was answering the question of how all this stuff Trump is doing will actually help the material needs of his base (here talking about his ordinary people base not billionaires). And Maisano pointed out that Trump and these people really do believe that so-called "illegals" are the reason for ordinary Americans economic problems: that they take up housing so if we deport them then housing will come down, that they take jobs that white Americans will now be able to take, that they take government benefits which drives inflation etc. They really believe that mass deportation will come with an obvious economic benefit. But much like tariffs etc. won't help rich capitalists deportations won't help working class people. So it will be interesting to see what happens when benefits fail to materialize
I saw an image of a cake yesterday (March 31) with the following message: “April Fools Day has been canceled. The entire year has been a joke!” I quite agree.
"Their own greed has led them into a trap." Yes, that makes sense.
Over decades, the GOP manufactured a massive propaganda machine to convince the public their policies were in the public's interest. They became masters of big ideas and potent imagery. They left the Democrats in the dust, with their dusty intellectual arguments and emotionally limp centrist talking points.
This machine grew and grew. Telling the Big Lie became an addiction, perhaps. Where the longer you were living in it, the more you believed it yourself. As the Orange King came to power, it still seemed to be working — show fealty, whip up righteous anger in yourself and others, and you get more. And in Term 1 it probably did work for them. Why not go for a Term 2? It might be more EXTREME! — but that could be good. It sounds good, it feels good — a little aggressiveness can't hurt.
But what happens now? Are they just too invested? There has to be a degree of this for the voters and the business community — loss aversion makes it hard to let go once you've already bought in. But almost nobody knew what they were buying. And you're right: the force at the center is incoherent and absurd, incapable of thinking past the next day or wave of ego gratification. And he seems to have that effect on the people around him.
Let's see what happens next. Liberation Day is coming!
> “But almost nobody knew what they were buying.”
I think about this a lot. There’s a lot of “they knew what they were voting for!” comments out there, and I disagree w/ that pretty strongly. My pops is a Republican voter, and had no fucking clue any of this was gonna be the result, and I’d hesitate to call him “low info”. He reads the WSJ, chats politics w/ his fellow country club repubs, etc.
If you consider that he's a Russian asset then his actions to destroy the USA and destroy its alliances all makes sense.
In keeping with your closing sentiment ("If it’s any consolation, all the capitalists who led us down this road are going to lose a shitload of money. Ha ha, fuckers."), here is a haiku I came across written for tRump when he was convicted of all those felonies and it looked like he *might* go to prison; perhaps our friends in the broligarchy will find solace in contemplating it's meaning:
ha ha ha ha ha
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
ha ha ha fucker
For the past dozen or so years I have been asking myself this question with regard to both the GOP and the Democratic party; Who's party is it? My assumption has been that the plutocrats/oligarchs/stinking-rich wholly own the GOP, and had veto power over Dems. getting too progressive for their liking. I think that view held up pretty well... until now.
I absolutely agree; Trump is insane. Even worse, Trump is an insane mafioso wannabe. The plutocrats were fine with Trump and his MAGA know-nothings back in 2016 so long as they got their deregulation and tax cuts. But Trump turned the GOP into his own private cult and the plutocrats lost control of their Frankenstein monster. So now the plutocrat's creation is going to turn on them and we will all suffer mightily.
Outstanding! Question: where do the Project 25 people come into your analysis?
Amen! Very sad that such a large number of Americans do not recognize a basic, obvious conman when they see one. Trump is just a sleazy conman. He has stated that he disdains his base, but he knows and uses suckers when he sees them.
Very good. Thank you for the cogent and, in my opinion, accurate diagnosis of this problem. Americans have allowed the corporate bottom line to substitute itself for public good. Voters have been bamboozled by corporations into conflating the public good with business' profits.
A perfect example of this is how Republicans in congress are backing the DOGE rip-off. My Republican senator and representative initially responded to my demand for services in defense of my Social Security with inane double-speak about what great cost-cutting DOGE was doing. I responded back with a tutorial on checks and balances, plus how they were not elected to encourage me to get my mind right and bow down to Trump. Basically I called their bluff and told them to stop pissing in my ear and telling me it's raining. The result .... radio silence.