Trump: Winners and Losers | Socialist Studies (original) (raw)

On the 6th November Donald Trump was elected to become the 47th President of the United States. Who are the winners and losers?

The foremost winner is the billionaire Elon Musk. The Guardian reported that_: “Tesla’s market value breached the $1tn mark in a sharp rally on Friday, on growing bets of a favourable treatment for CEO Elon Musk’s companies in return for his support for President-elect Donald Trump in his poll campaign”_ (Guardian 8 November 2024).

Another winner is Jeff Bezos who owns Amazon. He saw his net worth rise by 7billionto7 billion to 7billionto223.5 billion, maintaining his position as the world’s second-wealthiest person behind Musk. And Larry Ellison, the chair of the software company Oracle, also a Trump supporter, increased his wealth by nearly 10billionto10 billion to 10billionto193 billion.

According to Forbes the 400 richest people in America are having a splendid time in the roaring 2020s. In all, they are worth a record 5.4trillion,upnearly5.4 trillion, up nearly 5.4trillion,upnearly1 trillion from last year. A dozen have 100billion−plusfortunes,alsoarecord.Andadmissiontothiseliteclubispricierthanever:Aminimumnetworthof100 billion-plus fortunes, also a record. And admission to this elite club is pricier than ever: A minimum net worth of 100billion−plusfortunes,alsoarecord.Andadmissiontothiseliteclubispricierthanever:Aminimumnetworthof3.3 billion is required, up $400 million since 2023. Despite the high bar, 23 newcomers managed to break into the ranks, having grown their fortunes in everything from mundane plastic pipes to cutting-edge artificial intelligence.

The Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimated that ten richest people in the world gained nearly $64 billion the day after the election, the largest daily increase since the index began in 2012. (‘_The New European_’ 14th November 2024).

Another winner is the Republican free market think tanks particularly the Heritage Foundation. They published a 900-page document, Project 2025, setting out a free-market agenda incorporating a small and minimal State along with cuts in taxation. The document proposed slashing federal money for research and investment in renewable energy and for the President to “_stop the war on oil and natural gas_”. The President also intends to slash corporate and income taxes, abolish the federal Reserve and return to a gold-backed currency.

Yet another winner is the gas and oil industry. Trump has political disregard to any thing “green” including a disbelief in climate change. According to the ‘Guardian’ (18 October 2024) Donald Trump raised more money from the oil and gas industry than at this stage of his previous campaigns for the US presidency, with a surge of fossil fuel funding coming in the six months since he directly requested $1 billion from oil executives and then promised he would scrap environmental rules if elected.

If these are the winners then who are the losers?

It is the working class, those who have to sell their ability to work in exchange for a wage or salary.

The working class are the losers because Trump cannot alleviate the economic and social problems associated with their class position in society. Capitalism is based on the class ownership of the means of production and the accompanying exploitation of the workers.

Take the case of poverty. In one of the richest countries in the world the U.S. rates of poverty are substantially higher and more extreme than those found by the OECD in other 25 nations like the UK, Australia and Japan (OECD https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserve 2019). The overall U.S. rate stands at 17.8 percent, compared to the 25-country average of 10.7 percent. The Scandinavian and Benelux countries tend to have the lowest rates of poverty. For example, the overall rate of poverty in Denmark is only 5.5 percent. President Biden could not solve the poverty problem effecting millions of workers and neither will Donald Trump.

Of course, all the working class in the United States are in poverty, whether their income is high or low, because worker cannot produce what they need or directly take to feed, clothe and educate their families. Under capitalism workers are locked into the wages system. What their wages are and what they need to exist are two entirely different things.

Trump claims his presidency will mean a golden age for United States capitalism. That is a golden age for the capitalist class. However, capitalism always has a sting in the tail. Despite politicians claiming to control capitalism, it is the other way round, capitalism controls politicians who cannot do anything about the innate economic laws of capitalism which are dependent on commodity production and exchange for profit. Marx showed, and subsequent events have confirmed his analysis of capitalism’s economic laws, that arising from capitalism’s anarchy of production, there is an economic cycle from moderate expansion in production and sales, then boom, then crisis then depression. The Golden Age of capitalism never lasts as a previous generation found out in 1929 with the Great Depression followed a few years later with the Second World War and 55 million deaths.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________