By all appearances, U.S. President Donald Trump’s undisciplined approach to statecraft makes him seem like an incompetent rogue and possibly a tool of Russian interests. In essence, however, Trump’s wrecking-ball trip to London and Brussels, followed by his bombshell “summit” with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin represents something far more dangerous to the main-wing, imperialist finance capitalists of the U.S. ruling class.
With each passing week, Trump seems to be lining up more and more closely with the “small America” strategic vision pushed by a subordinate, domestically oriented, overtly racist wing of the U.S. bosses. Represented by billionaires like Robert Mercer and the Koch brothers, who are less reliant on overseas profiteering, these bosses are suspicious of multilateral entanglements with Western Europe, as embodied by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). With each passing week, Trump seems more and more under the sway of these isolationists—a highly volatile situation for a declining superpower already well on the road to fascism and World War III.
Trump’s shift to treating Russia as an equal partner rather than a sworn enemy reflects the position of MIT’s Barry Posen in his 2014 book, Restraint:
The United States should focus on a small number of threats, and approach those threats with subtlety and moderation…. It can do that because the United States is economically and militarily strong, well-endowed and well-defended by nature….It is not smart to spend energies transforming a recalcitrant world that we could spend renewing a United States that still needs some work.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the “MIT School” has argued against the strategy of “liberal hegemony,” the “unipolar” dominance presented to U.S. imperialism when its main rival exited the world stage (theamericanconservative.com, 8/26/14). Until recently, this was a mostly ignored minority position inside the foreign policy establishment.
Now a U.S. president has embraced Posner’s go-it-alone nationalism. Trump’s stance implies a smaller, whiter military harboring open racism—like the military that has emerged since 9/11 (Washington Post, 8/17). With backing from the Russian-connected Mercer (mypalmbeachpost.com, 3/18) and Koch interests, Trump has built a loyal and mass racist, sexist, anti-immigrant movement that makes it risky for the big bosses to remove him from power too abruptly.
Shifting alliances
The split in the U.S. ruling class is leading capitalist rulers in Europe to look elsewhere for more reliable allies. In the days following Trump’s scorched-earth visit to Europe, the European Union sent trade delegations to China and Japan, what may be early steps toward a potential reshuffling of the liberal world order and a diminished U.S. influence. While EU-Chinese relations continue to be tainted with mutual suspicion (aljazeera.com, 7/22), the Economic Partnership Agreement signed by the EU and Japan on July 17 has created the world’s third largest free-trade community. The largest is the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which Trump pulled out of in January (aljazeera.com, 7/22).
On July 16, Trump doubled down by threatening the newest NATO member, tiny Montenegro, saying the U.S. shouldn’t have to defend it if Montenegro’s “aggressive” people go to war. As Russian imperialism works overtime to expand its influence in the Balkans, the place where World War I began and where the collapse of the USSR spawned U.S.-led war through the 1990s, Putin can only welcome Trump’s posture.
US ruling class—splits intensify
Most troubling to main-wing U.S. imperialists, represented by both Democrats and leading Congressional Republicans, is the fact that Trump’s brand of nationalism is gaining followers. An Axios poll found that 79 percent of Republicans approved of Trump’s performance with Putin, while 85 percent think the Robert Mueller investigation into Russian interference is a distraction (New York Times, 7/22). The Times editorial page likened Trump’s base “to the members of a cult.”
This brand of rhetoric in the leading main-wing mouthpiece could be a prelude to a domestic political conflict that could quickly turn brutal. Rasmussen polls show that fears of a new civil war are growing (washingtonexaminer.com, 6/18), with the larger group (59 percent) concerned that anti-Trump forces will turn to violence.
Meanwhile, the mass murderers of the FBI and CIA are presented by the main-wing media as defenders of truth, justice, and peace. This is the essence of nationalism, which misleads and terrifies working people into siding with a nation’s rulers against their sister and brother workers in other countries.
Ex-CIA chief John Brennan, a willing executioner in Barack Obama’s targeted assassination program (foreignpolicy.com, 9/12), tweeted that Trump’s behavior was impeachable and “treasonous.” Trump hit back by threatening to revoke Brennan’s security clearance, which former officers retain for both private business reasons and to provide continuity (npr.org, 7/23/18). Such petty score-settling reveals the growing intensity of the fight between the “Fortress America” nationalists and the main-wing imperialists.
Reject nationalism, fight for communism
There have long been divisions among the bosses over the global reach of U.S. capitalism, from World War II through the conflicts in Korea and Vietnam. What’s different now is that the main wing can no longer count on the U.S. president to do its bidding. If pushed too hard, the main-wing rulers will seek to bring Trump to heel—and to deal with his base as brutally as necessary. The U.S. Civil War reminds us that the bosses will kill one another—and many workers in the process—when their interests are threatened sharply enough.
In periods of crisis, the working class must remember that there are no good bosses, no lesser evils. Main-wing liberals—from Franklin Roosevelt through Obama—have the blood of tens of millions of workers on their hands. Though capitalists’ appearances will vary, the antidote to awful capitalist leadership is not reformed capitalist leadership. The antidote is revolutionary working-class leadership—communist leadership.
When we act on this knowledge in the class struggle, we bring us that much closer a communist world. We create the basis for a society that operates on the communist principle: from each according to commitment, to each according to need. We advance a society without racism, sexism, money, or racist borders.
Help the international working class by reading, writing for, and distributing CHALLENGE. Communism is the only society that can deliver what the international working class needs, where the “free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.”