I’m a bit confused why capitalists support Trump when he plans on doing stuff that I think would destroy the economy. Thinking of mass deportations and high, broad tarrifs.
I’m not sure if:
- They just don’t care because they have enough wealth to weather anything.
- They don’t think Trump will actually do these things.
- They’re dumb and think it won’t hurt the economy.
- They plan on trading wealth for more direct power. I.e. becoming oligarchs.
- They have other ideologies (racism, Ayn Rand-ism, accelerationism, Dark Enlightenment, etc) that they prioritize higher than obtaining as much wealth as possible.
Or maybe some combination of the above, or something else entirely.
Edit: by “capitalists,” I mean the “elite” like Musk and his other billionaire donors. But I guess it’s a good question for smaller donors as well.
short term gains.
It’s important to know that Capitalists support both the Democrats and the Republicans. Many donate to both, even. What’s important is to analyze what Trump offers that Harris didn’t.
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Decreased taxation on higher tax brackets. Plain and simple.
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High tarrifs on goods from China, as a means to combat the PRC’s rising influence globally and ideally force development of US industry. Marco Rubio is especially warhawk-ish about the PRC, which ties into the US Navy’s plan to be ready for a hypothetical war with the PRC by 2027
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Austerity politics. Trump is slated to take a similar approach to Javier Milei and dramatically cut back on government spending, in many ways by selling publicly owned assets to private interests.
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Strong anti-immigration rhetoric endangers undocumented workers, which means the Capitalists can leverage this fear to pay them even lower wages under the table. Instead of paying foreign workers microscopic wages traditionally and paying hefty transportation costs, they can have a super-exploited underclass domestically.
The important note about Capitalism, and by extension Imperialism, is that it starts to suffocate itself as it ages. The Tendency for the Rate of Profit to Fall is only able to be fought through expansion or centralization, to raise the absolute profit margins, and this sell-off of government assets is one of the most effective ways to do so.
Now, more than ever, is a great time to start reading theory. I made an introductory Marxist reading list if you want to check it out! Feel free to leave feedback.
Had me in the first half, not gonna lie
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- The poor and middle class are stupid. Inflation got out of hand all over the world and profits went up faster than they did under Trump because companies were screwing us.
- Businesses will be overall happy with the new regime because they can ignore more regs (better margins), fire workers more easily, merge and buyout competitors easier, and take advantage of more slave (i.e. prison) labor.
Anything bad that happens will either be framed as Bidens fault or the price of getting our finances in order.
Why did many powerful and rich people support Brexit? Crises shake up existing ownership structures, e.g. people sell houses and companies for lower than usual to cover rising costs. If your investments are spread out globally, you’ll be able to invest at these cheap low points, giving you a massive boost once the economy comes back.
Just look at home ownership since the mortgage crisis - so much wealth was transferred up, and it happens again and again.
It’s a two stage solution to today’s existing corruption and problems.
- Break everything to expose the rot
- Break it again to make sure it stays broken
“Chaos is a ladder”
More or less, a mix depending on which part of his base you’re referring to. For his wealthy campaign backers, most likely point 4.
Because it’s a matter of power to them first and foremost, the capital class will tolerate the economy crashing as long as it hurts you more than it hurts them. If anything, the economy crashing (so long as we don’t see total collapse) merely presents an opportunity to buy up the remaining pieces to add into their portfolios.
We already have a precedent of “too big to fail”, so Congress will just bail out the largest players anyways to all-but ensure this is the way things end up going.
A lot of them are motivated by power more than anything else. They want to feel superior and get off on the misery of others. They’d rather have a bigger slice of a smaller cake, even if the smaller slice of the bigger cake would be objectively larger.
They’ll grift their own winnings
All of the above.
Another one is that they think they can manipulate or bribe him into exempting their interests or targeting their competitors.
There’s also the true believers who fell deep into the cult and accept whatever Trump says as their current truth so economics isn’t really a consideration for them now.
I do think most of them don’t really believe him yet and won’t until he actually starts implementing the tariffs and rounding up immigrants. Then we get to watch them freak out while the economy crashes yet again.
Good money is on stupid.
The 6 bankruptcies behind the “successful businessman” is in fine print.
Most don’t, its just the idiots or people that already have enough money and don’t make much more.
