Trump 2.0 Is Not About Trump

It is about the oligarchy, the misfits, and the demons Trump sold our nation's soul to.

Courtesy of Silent Film

As we go through the stages of trying to cope with Donald Trump’s convincing victory over Kamala Harris, the pain of millions of us, if bottled, could float a dirigible from Lakehurst, New Jersey, across the Atlantic to Berlin, Germany.

I chose this imagery for a specific historical reason. The Hindenburg was flown from Nazi Germany to a scrappy United States, making what few would realize was the beginning of the final chapter of U.S. democracy (more on this later). The horror of November 6th, when we awoke to the prospect of Trump 2.0, has, for me at least, traveled an emotional gauntlet of disbelief, rage, disgust, apathy, and now to a reluctant acceptance. The thing is, though, I am not just shrugging my shoulders and saying like Morning Joe and Mika from MSNBC, “Well, we must now accept him as our president and move on.” No, I am choosing the path of eternal resistance until those who need Trump in power silence me.

Those Who Need Him Differ from Those Who Support Him

Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos need Trump in power. There is a long list of billionaires and powerful companies that need Trump in power because it frees them to do whatever the hell they like in their pursuit of making trillions of dollars. As companies angle to remove regulations that are responsible for humanity, they will accept the compromises from the more extreme elements of Trump’s incoming demons to prune the rights of Americans.

Imagine the meeting when Trump’s Goebbels-look-alike, Stephen Miller, promises a CEO freedom from all regulations if he hands over employees with questionable immigration status. Save billions for your company, and guarantee himself hundreds of millions in bonuses if you give up a few thousand developers from India and Brazil. Many CEOs won’t think twice about the choice.

The same thing can — and will — happen when the government demands private information on millions of users of, say, Amazon. Ah-ha, such-and-such Democratic congressman, a daily thorn in the side of Trump, has purchased in the past things like pantyhose, anal sex toys, and books about how to make love to a papaya. Suddenly, such-and-such nuisance has been stifled. The resistance, beaten back, the Trump team rewards Bezos with billions worth of government orders. Do you really think Jeff Bezos, the man who was shagging his buddy’s wife in the pantry off the kitchen while his wife and his buddy were out on the deck, would turn down billions of dollars for some buzzing-fly Democrat?

I could be wrong, but I don’t see that happening. What is my proof? Let’s recall how Bezos ordered The Washington Post not to endorse Kamala Harris. Coincidentally, that order came on the same day that Bezos’s rocket company’s top management met with Trump. The blowback was instant and big, costing The Post millions, but Bezos was laughing because what are millions when he would be earning billions? The Bezos PR sleuths then assured that the wizard knew nothing about the rocket meeting. Folks, Bezos didn’t become Bezos if he didn’t micromanage every aspect of his empire.

There are countless companies and billionaires just waiting for the opportunity to be tested by the Trump team. There aren’t many who will pass the test simply because if there is one thing people with lots of money hate, other people earn more than them. This is the dynamic the Trump fascists, the ones reengineering our society, will manipulate for the next four years. If Company A takes the high road, Company B will thrive. Shareholders will then ask the CEO of Company A, “WTF?” And, by law, they will have the right to ask that question. The CEO has a fiduciary duty to earn money for the shareholders, so he cannot let his personal views distract him from that mission.

We talk about how our country will become a fascist one. It will if that is what is good for business. It is already in the early stages of being authoritarian simply because the entirety of the Republican Party has given up its rights as legally elected representatives to challenge Trump. Trump has harnessed the power of the mob. When any elected official threatens to challenge his latest anti-democratic edicts, he sics that mob of pit bulls on that representative.

Even though it seems we voted democratically, the messages were manipulated by the oligarchy. Never before has a billionaire, Elon Musk, who happens to be the wealthiest person on Earth had such an influence. Musk was literally paying people to vote. In many red states, giving Black voters standing in day-long lines to vote a bottle of water was against the law, but offering money to vote was not.

For his hard work and support, Elon Musk has been rewarded with a job that will empower him to cut regulations that interfere with business. It does not take an American with a 6th-grade reading level to guess which regulations he will cut first, right?

Trump 2.0 will become whatever the oligarchy deems necessary. Having lived in Russia for 28 years, I watched as the oligarchy rose to power on the wings of democracy. In 1996, the Communist Gennady Zyuganov threatened Boris Yeltsin for the presidency. Throughout the world, there was fear that Russia could slip backward into communism. The rising oligarchy spent millions on shaping public opinion. The “get-out-the-vote” campaign was substantial. Russians flocked to the polls to support democracy.

Over the next four years, the oligarchy collaborated with the Yeltsin teams to silence the democratic voice that had so eloquently articulated itself in 1996. The enemy of an oligarchy is democracy. Oligarchs don’t want the wealth to be spread equally; instead, they want it concentrated in their hands. Today, four Americans have more wealth than the bottom 40 percent (Musk, Bezos, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg). Russia’s oligarchs took over the Yeltsin government, and then, in 1999 when an exhausted Yeltsin decided to step aside, Vladimir Putin was the accepted replacement.

Putin’s first act was to bring the oligarchy under control. He succeeded, and by 2012, it all belonged unquestioningly to him. Look where Russia is today.

Donald Trump is not Vladimir Putin. To begin with, he is already showing signs of suffering from dementia. He is undisciplined, and everything is about how the public perceives him. He is more concerned with ratings than real accomplishments. Nonetheless, Trump 2.0 is not about Trump, it is about everyone else filling out his administration. It is about how Elon Musk and the other oligarchs will destroy our democracy and rebuild it in their image.

How long before we see the face of the South African on the hundred-dollar bill?