Skip to main content
Donate to the 95 years appeal
Trumpism as capitalism’s default option
Although he represents the growth of ‘anti-elite’ feeling in the masses, the US president is a ruling-class response to a ruling-class crisis, writes ZOLTAN ZIGEDY
Although personally ridiculous and incompetent, Trump represents a section of the ruling class’s alternative to the now nearly 30-year reign of ‘hands-off’ economics

Happily, many on the US left are beginning to see the intense, ongoing battle between Trump and his defenders and the self-described “resistance” as reflective of a “split in the ruling class.”

This is a welcome development because it removes some of the confusions fostered by the Democratic Party leadership and the childish sensationalism and witless simplicity of the capitalist media. With little more than Russians-under-every-bed to rouse the electorate, the Democrats sell a narrative of Trump-as-Traitor, Trump-as-Defiler-in-Chief and Trump-as-Fascist.

Nancy Pelosi, the billionaire face of the Democratic Party parliamentary contingent, declared three priorities, should the Democrats win the interim election, three pieces of battered, rusty liberal boilerplate: lowering health costs and med prices (always promised, never delivered nor deliverable under a private system), higher wages and improved infrastructure (unrealised for nearly half a century and a teaser to the labour movement), and “cleaning up corruption” (which means continuing the bizarre Mueller witch hunt). No mention of overturning the Trump administration’s tax cuts for the rich.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
OF THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE: Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, right, and Attorney General of New York Letitia James walk in the NYC Pride March last Sunday
Features / 4 July 2025
4 July 2025

The prospect of the Democratic Socialists of America member’s victory in the mayoral race has terrified billionaires and outraged the centrist liberal Establishment by showing that listening to voters about class issues works, writes ZOLTAN ZIGEDY

Tents are set up along a freeway in a homeless encampment, May 12, 2025, in Los Angeles
Features / 27 May 2025
27 May 2025

In 2024, 19 households grew richer by $1 trillion while 66 million households shared 3 per cent of wealth in the US, validating Marx’s prediction that capitalism ‘establishes an accumulation of misery corresponding with accumulation of capital,’ writes ZOLTAN ZIGEDY

Confetti and flowers are dropped from a military helicopter
Opinion / 1 April 2025
1 April 2025
The transformation of a stable secular state into a fractured ruin largely ruled by Western-backed fundamentalists exposes the hollow nature of ‘multipolarity’ and the absence of principled anti-imperialism today, writes ZOLTAN ZIGEDY
The AFL-CIO headquarters
Features / 9 January 2025
9 January 2025
ZOLTAN ZIGEDY reflects on the lessons from two books looking at the US labour movement and the recent history of spontaneous mass uprisings – and finds two pernicious ideologies working against the interests of the people
Similar stories
Tents are set up along a freeway in a homeless encampment, May 12, 2025, in Los Angeles
Features / 27 May 2025
27 May 2025

In 2024, 19 households grew richer by $1 trillion while 66 million households shared 3 per cent of wealth in the US, validating Marx’s prediction that capitalism ‘establishes an accumulation of misery corresponding with accumulation of capital,’ writes ZOLTAN ZIGEDY

The AFL-CIO headquarters
Features / 9 January 2025
9 January 2025
ZOLTAN ZIGEDY reflects on the lessons from two books looking at the US labour movement and the recent history of spontaneous mass uprisings – and finds two pernicious ideologies working against the interests of the people
Vladimir Lenin, revolutionary leader of the first government
Features / 17 September 2024
17 September 2024
The left’s retreat from class, embrace of ‘hyphenated capitalisms’ and tepid reformism in tropical settings needs to be finally dumped in favour of a bold socialist programme and Leninist party organisation, writes ZOLTAN ZIGEDY
THE COMMON TOUCH: Vance poses for photos with kitchen staff
Features / 5 August 2024
5 August 2024
The controversial senator’s meteoric rise shows us how the ruling class and its media will always reward those who repackage working-class struggles as personal failings, writes ZOLTAN ZIGEDY