Trump is the monster that late stage capitalism produced

A US President in 2025 with his head and brain stuck in 1825 is what we are currently dealing with. Trump’s white supremacy and economic nationalism have combined and are combining to upend a late stage capitalist system predicated on the unfettered movement of goods, services and investment across the globe.

No matter, because in the world of Trump human affairs are all about conflict, friction and domination/subjugation. The global capitalist economy is not, in his junk-food addled mind, a landscape of innovation, adaptation and compromise for the good of the majority of all. Instead, for him, it is all about absolute winners and absolute losers.

The concept of the zero sum game could have been invented with Donald J. Trump in mind. America First is a slogan and mantra that may titillate the sensibilities of the dumb and dumber, but does little if anything to grasp the realities of a global economy underpinned by interdependence and mutuality on the basis of you win some you lose some.

Those who desire to own all the marbles are condemned to wind up with none within a capitalist reality. For Trump and the cult of true believers he has forged, though, this dead end economic trajectory of travel has less to do with reality and more to do with magical thinking.