
Donald Trump, a capitalist himself, was inaugurated in front of a line of some of the wealthiest and most influential capitalists in the world today. Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai, Tim Cook and Elon Musk all stood within feet of the new president, a total of nearly $1 trillion worth of wealth, all of whom expect that their recent financial contributions and visible support for him will win his favor, guaranteeing that the government will continue to support their never-ending pursuit of profit. And that list doesn’t include the other billionaires who were also in the Capitol during the ceremony, or the 11 billionaire capitalists who Trump chose for his cabinet to help him manage the economy for the benefit of those other big capitalists.
The United States government, throughout its history, has used two changing and shifting yet always loyal political parties to carry out ruling class objectives. Whether the landowning and slave-owning ruling class of the colonial and the antebellum era, the industrial and banking ruling class that developed and matured throughout the 19th century, or that same ruling class which in the past twenty years has included a new tech-billionaire layer created by the internet revolution, the ruling class has always financed, shaped, influenced, bribed, and otherwise influenced U.S. political leaders on what they wanted. This has been the case in both Democratic and Republican administrations, where capitalist money and influence both shape and limit what the two parties will do or not do at a given moment.
“The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie.” Karl Marx wrote that in 1848. He correctly understood that the state (a.k.a. the government) in any class society is not a neutral actor, but is a tool used by the dominant class to help carry out its goals while keeping the rest of the population in line.
Typically, capitalists stay in the background at major political events, allowing the politicians to at least appear to be independent from big business interests. They fund the campaigns and careers of the politicians, and may talk to them regularly, but rarely out in the open for all to see. But Trump and the capitalists who support him are being unashamedly upfront about their complete interdependence and mutual support. They are telling us directly that they are going to work hand in hand for the coming years to enrich themselves at the expense of everyone else.
What does this mean for the rest of us? What does it mean for the so-called “American workers” whom Trump claims to speak for?
How Trump deals with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) will give a partial answer to these questions. Although not nearly protective enough of workers’ interests, and much too slow to respond to workers’ needs, the NLRB is nonetheless a body to which workers and unions can at least appeal when corporations mistreat them. But two of the men at the inauguration want very much to get rid of the NLRB. Both Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, whose companies consistently have abused their workers and have fought tooth and nail to stop their workers from forming or joining unions, share the goal of getting rid of the NLRB.
In other words, workers will be hurt, while Trump’s big business supporters will be able to exploit workers even more harshly with no fear of consequences. The same will go for Trump’s immigration policies (which divide groups of workers against each other), tax policies (which will help the rich enrich themselves even more), regulatory policies (which will get rid of most if not all limitations on how businesses can screw the rest of us over), and his tariff policies (which will protect corporations in the U.S. from foreign competition while probably making life more expensive for working people).
Working people should pay attention to what Trump’s inauguration was telling us. His special guests were not working-class people – no train operators, no delivery workers, no garbage collectors, no assembly line works, no teachers, no construction workers, no farmworkers, no nurses, no plumbers, no retail sales clerks, no waitresses. But there were lots of rich capitalists in the room.
For working people desperately hoping for a change from the status quo, we understand why Trump’s lies may have sounded appealing. But we shouldn’t be fooled anymore. The government in a class society is not on our side. Not under Democratic politicians or under Republican politicians. Trump’s guests at the inauguration made it clear whose side he is on.