The recent decision by the U.S. government to take a 10% stake in Intel, coming as it has on the heel of the acquisition of a "golden share" by the U.S. government in U.S. Steel and the announcement that Nvidia will pay the U.S. government a 15% share of the revenue from sales to China has led at least two writers to ask “is Trump a socialist?”
The answer is “no,” for reasons we will get to later, but that’s no reason to like what is happening. In fact, if you’re a Republican, you might be thinking, “what happened to conservative support for free market capitalism?” I’m sorry if I’m the first to tell you this, but Trump isn’t a conservative, and as long as the GOP continues to do what Trump tells them, neither are they.
The less honest of Trump’s adversaries have long accused him of fascism, and now that they are throwing socialism into the mix, it’s clear that they either don’t understand him or are just using scare tactics to try to discredit him. The fact of the matter is that Trump is neither a fascist nor a socialist. Not because he doesn’t support economic policies that both groups love, nor display the authoritarian tendencies of these two groups, but because fascism and socialism are ideologies that require a system of beliefs beyond the self. They are “us vs. them” ideologies, not “me vs. you,” and Trump is a “me vs. you” guy.
There’s no such thing as a Trumpist
I’m tempted to say a “Trumpist,” but that would simply be dodging the question. You can’t put a label on something that hasn’t been defined. Trump has been the central political figure for a decade, so we know from his actions how he thinks. He…
…values money and respect above all else and views the law as an inconvenience or hurdle rather than the foundation of a liberal democracy. As a result, he…
…has frequent run-ins with the law. These are just part of “doing business,” but ideally, they can be avoided by bullying or threatening opponents. If that fails, then…
…it’s necessary to “lawyer up.” Avoiding and dealing with legal issues requires the right type of lieutenant. This explains his…
…obsession with loyalty. Truth and ethics are for suckers and cannot be allowed to hinder “the family business.”
Is a picture starting to form in your head?
Not quite. Trump lacks the discipline and restraint to be Don Vito Corleone. Think Sonny or Fredo…
You can pick the Corleone you prefer.
Honestly, I’m not entirely sold on the comparison anyway. The Godfather movies have lent a certain class and intelligence to gangsters that Trump really isn’t worthy of. An obsession with gold and hawking anything to make a buck is crass. If you want to stick with the gangster comparison, something from Goodfellas is probably more apt.
Make sure the boss gets his cut.
“Truth is relative, money is absolute.”
Even then, calling Trump a gangster feels like an insult to gangsters. These quotes don’t say “gangster:”
"The name of the game, moving the money from the client's pocket to your pocket."
"Money doesn’t just buy you a better life, better food, better cars, better pussy—it also makes you a better person."
“Was all this legal? Absolutely f**ing not, but we were making more money than we knew what to do with.”
No, Trump didn’t say these, Jordan Belfort did. You remember Jordan, don’t you?
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
Trump effortlessly melds the crass backstabbing nature of a mobster with the conniving instincts of a conman.
Gangster, conman, petty thief, the only label that really matters is criminal.
Ya, he “beat the rap” on several occasions, but “not guilty” is not “innocent.”
Trump isn’t a fascist, a socialist, or any other “ist” because ideologies require a belief in something more than money and the self. Which, at the end of the day, is all Trump cares about.
"If something cannot go on forever, it will stop."
-- Herbert Stein
I have been doing this long enough to know what awaits me, the Trump apostate. The MAGA faithful, always keen to avoid any information that might question their fanatical devotion to “the great leader,” will rush to Trump’s defense. Cries of “what you don’t understand is…” will be hurled at me from those who believe every misstep is evidence of 4D chess while those who see the world as a binary will claim that “Trump is doing what he was elected to do” seemingly incapable of grasping just how many people voted for him, not because they saw him as a good choice, but because they thought he was the least bad one.
This will please Trump, as no conman can succeed without clueless suckers.
I spent much of last year arguing that Trump was a better candidate than Harris. Who knows, I may even have been right. Counterfactuals are hypothetical and consequently unprovable. It’s impossible to say if Harris would have been worse. The only thing I can be certain of is that Trump has been bad. Very bad.
The only good news I have for you is that, like all cons, Trump’s will eventually end. Yes, he’ll be quite a bit richer than when he was elected, and the country (and world) will be a mess thanks to what he’s doing, but it will end.
“I’m not a monster. I’m just ahead of the curve.” – The Joker
What comes after is the mystery. If Trump is the new norm… well, I can’t think of anything more poetic than “we’re all screwed.”
If he’s an aberration, then it means 38 more months of this before the “long con” is over and the country returns to something it’s more accustomed to, dishonest and incompetent politicians being corrupt, but in a quietly acceptable way.
Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author's own.
Phil is a freelance writer, Canadian Navy veteran, and classical liberal. He has lived and worked in both Canada and the United States and currently resides in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he writes on politics, individual rights, free speech, and anything else that catches his fancy.
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I thought you were going somewhere with this article and it turned out to be Trump cynicism. I grant you that Trump is always for and always will be for Trump… but he is also a populist and I do believe he is also a dyed-in-the-wool American that puts America and Americans first.