Capitalist Coup!

A capitalist coup is underway in America, and Britain and Europe may well follow.

At a cost of as little as $1m each given to Trump's inaugural fund in some cases - pocket change to billionaires and big corporations - the American and international very rich have staged a coup in America. Elon Musk so much so that he can do whatever he likes - and make a profit. In the UK he's supported right wing extremists like Tommy Robinson and Nigel Farage. Musk is also interfering in the EU and has allied himself with the German neo-nazi party AfD.

Of course, some corporations have given more than $1m. Some are donating by settling legal cases that they should have won, for example Meta and ABC. Others give to PACs. Others are buying Trump bitcoin. It makes buying suites at Trump tower seem petty in comparison.

Trump's policies are clearly not designed to help the people, and nor are many of Labour's. They help the very rich. Trump wants to destroy government so that the wealthy do not have to pay taxes, and does not care about the consequences for everyone else.

Even before Trump, politicians were listening to the oligarchs and not the rest of us, as Gilens and Page showed. President Jimmy Carter told Thom Hartmann in 2015 that America is an oligarchy.

Far from increasing efficiency, Trump & Musk have caused people in practically every department extra work scrambling to obey the flurry of executive orders and Musk's demands, and are sidelining the people with experience. Clearly they do not care if they break the people's government. The tariffs will cause companies extra work, too, both in America and in other countries - Mexico, China and Canada in particular, but there will be others and a knock-on effect around the world.

In Britain, some prominent Tory and Reform Party members have been hanging out with Republicans over in America, and with the same or similar think tanks to the Republicans. More worrying, the Labour Party seem to be listening to the same think tanks, judging by their economic and environmental actions (which differ from their promises) and their focus on making the poor and sick suffer so that the capitalists can get more growth. Putin and Musk have both been interfering in British politics too. The articles marking the 5th anniversary of Brexit show how much damage has been done.

It is common for voters to tend towards the right when they feel threatened. There are many threats to peace and prosperity these days, and a lot of money and effort has been spent on making us feel threatened by the things that they want us to feel threatened by, and not the most important real threats. This is a mistake, of course, as we end up giving power to those who will do the least for the voters. Add to that when you get a cult leader (and how many cult leaders are good people?) and you are likely to get the sort of mess that America is now facing.

Putting corporations before people started a long time ago. For example, during the crash of 2007/2008 it was the banks who were bailed out, while people's homes were foreclosed on. And currently, egg producers are being bailed out for avian flu losses while egg prices still rise, and while avian flu is not being contained (which is not being helped by the government news blackout). But now the inhumanity is on steroids.

American oligarch takeover

In such a fast-moving situation it is inevitable that by the time you read this, some of the actions will have been rescinded, and others will have taken their place. But remember, that some of them are only intended as shock and awe, to distract attention from what else they are doing - for example, Musk stealing the data of every American and of every company that does business with the American government. You can be sure that even if he is ousted, the damage will have been done, and there will be a lot of work to check if his young hackers have left any spyware in the systems. Musk was very busy while we focused on Executive Orders. Robert Reich has written a fascinating article about Trump's motivation.

The oligarchs' main aims are to stop anyone from regulating or taxing them. They want to be able to treat their workers, customers and the environment as beneath their notice. They have already captured enough politicians to get their way. They are slashing government so that the amount saved can be used to give the rich tax cuts in the upcoming reconciliation bill.

What Trump and Musk have done

Trump's rhetoric, trade wars (of which I will write later), withdrawal from the Paris agreement and from the WHO has pissed off America's allies (but no doubt delighted Putin), but that will not matter in countries where oligarchs have power. Despite his rhetoric, Trump is not in the least patriotic, but bows only to those who can give him power and wealth. With globalisation, oligarchs can move money around the world to achieve their ends, and pit workers in one country with those in another. Just as the corporations in a near-monopolistic market do not have to actively collude to match their prices, so oligarchs do not have to belong to a secret cabal for something resembling a new world order to form.

Many of Trump's actions and rhetoric are causing the market to go up and down, and no doubt those who are let into the secret of what he will do next are making a killing.

Alexander Vindman calls Musk's hijacking of the government a hostile takeover.

Trump froze spending, causing chaos in a multitude of departments. This was unconstitutional, but Trump does not care. Billionaires do not want the government to spend.

A huge number of federal workers have been offered so-called 'buyouts' if they resign promptly, which will decimate the civil service. Many have been locked out of their offices.

Oligarchs want to treat their workers like slaves and are often white supremacists, and they don't want climate change measures costing them any business, so they are waging war on anyone and anything to do with DEI, gender and climate change, as well as planning to deport huge numbers of immigrants (raids have already begun). The latter is strange as they are deporting essential and cheap labour. Research is grinding to a halt, so America is not going to be great.

Trump has fired the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), so consumers will be less protected against rich corporations. Trump's new Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has ordered the CFPB to cease efforts on enforcement actions and active litigation. That is, stop protecting the people from the very rich.

Trump is trying to force out FBI executives in charge of criminal, national security, and cyber probes. This will leave oligarchs and politicians free to commit more crimes, and make Americans less safe. In particular, he has gone on a revenge attack on anyone who worked on any of the cases connected to January 6. They are suing.

Trump has got Republicans and some Democrats so scared that they are voting in favour of all his nominees, no matter how unqualified and unsuitable they are. They will be happy to carry out his agenda of shrinking their departments.

Trump also fired 18 inspectors general overnight, so there will be nobody calling his newly-appointed toadies to account.

Musk has shut down USAID, and virtually all staff are to return to the USA within 30 days, as the USAID web site says. Today he was at NOAA. The Trends in CO2 (Keeling Curve) site there has already gone. The climate change work of USAID has come to a screeching halt.

Unelected, unvetted Musk, with major conflicts of interest, demanded and was given the keys to the Treasury payments system, so now he has access to data on every person and corporation (including his rivals) that has received a payment from the government.

Paul Krugman has written that Trump's trade wars will lead to "The End of North America". Currently the Chinese tariffs are going into effect, but the Mexican and Canadian tariffs have been postponed for 30 days. Trump claimed he got concessions, but I suspect the threat of retaliation, and/or complaints of big corporations had more to do with it.

Both Trump and Musk are targeting the Department of Education, where newly-appointed head Linda McMahon is tasked with putting herself out of a job - i.e. eliminating the department.

There may be more

At the time of writing, we are less than 17 days into Trump's presidency, and already he is well on the way to destroying government. Hitler took 53 days. How long before Trump has undone nearly 250 years of American progress?