Trump and his plutocrats

In one of my not so recent posts, US Election: Selecting Lesser (Bigger) Evil dated July 27, 2024, I had written whoever wins the US Presidential Election will have to work according to the wishes of three most influential groups of the country: 1) military complexes, 2) oil & gas exploration companies and 3) Wall Street. Donald Trump is schedules to take oath on Monday, January 20, 2025.

Today, I refer to an article by Trope Folarin, Executive Director of Institute of Policy Studies (IPS). The details are worth reading and should be an eye opener for those who are under illusion that Trump era-2 will bring peace and prosperity in the United States and around the world.

Trump will be joined onstage by Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and other billionaires. Despite Trump’s ostensibly populist campaign, the moment will symbolize his toxic linkage of extremist, far-right bigotry with the class interests of billionaires.

Their wealth is already skyrocketing. As Chuck Collins calculates from Forbes wealth data, at the end of 2024 there were 813 US billionaires with a combined total wealth of US$6.72 trillion. These billionaires and plutocrats are getting a front row seat in the next administration, Sam Pizzigati adds.

In another piece, Chuck highlights new data showing how fossil fuel barons are bankrolling Trump. It’s no wonder Trump is expected to immediately withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Accords (again) — a step the Climate Policy Program has condemned.

It is another irony that the inauguration will be held on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. 

As a courageous advocate of racial and economic justice, King would be disgusted by this display. But through the multi-racial, multi-issue Poor People’s Campaign he co-founded toward the end of his life, King also showed how these racist plutocrats can be defeated ‑ by coming together.

IPS is the research arm of the modern Poor People’s Campaign, a movement of poor people for peace and racial, economic, and environmental justice. And despite the crisis in the US politics, Americans see several signs people can still pull together to transform the system.

As Trump takes office, Peter Certo lays out five popular checks on Trump's agenda, building on some major wins in 2024 — from unionization campaigns to an invigorated peace movement, climate wins, and progressive victories at the state and local levels.

"Our politics are a mess right now. But our country isn’t 'lost' — only our leaders are,” he writes. “When Americans organize around our common decency, it’s going to get a lot harder for bullies like Trump to walk over us.”

 

John Feffer has also warned how Trump’s policies could deepen the global climate crisis. Hanna Homestead and Aspen Coriz-Romero explain how the US subsidizes militarism while underfunding climate solutions. Sulma Arias connects Trump’s looming immigration crackdown to the greed of private prison companies.

Christine Ahn explains in the Chronicle of Philanthropy how philanthropists can embrace a progressive feminist policy vision and fight militarism through their giving.

 

Trope Folarin, Executive Director IPA offers a bit of inauguration counterprogramming with his new piece in Places Journal, “The City Was All I Had.”