Trump's Mafia Regime

Trump's regime in the US is a mafia regime, much like the regime of his associate Netanyahu and the Zionist/colonialist state in Israel. The Zionist state came into existence as a terrorist state, most clearly seen in the actions of the likes of the Stern Gang. It expanded its territory by terrorising the indigenous Palestinians, and seizing their land and property, a process it has continued ever since. Since its inception, it has also used the same kinds of mafia methods including against its own internal opponents, most notably its actions in kidnapping Mordecai Vanunu. Trump's mafia regime has been using the same tactics on the streets of US cities, as it has recruited into the paramilitary gangs of ICE, assorted thugs, who have then be released on to the streets of the US to simply snatch anyone who is not white, thousands of whom, are, then, disappeared, reminiscent of the way the death squads, supported by the CIA, operated in various Latin American countries in the past.

The kidnapping of Maduro by Trump's mafia regime is fully consistent with that approach. For Trump, and his mafia regime, the motivations seem clear. The idea that this was about drugs is clearly nonsense. The Venezuelan regime of Maduro may well have been involved in facilitating drug smuggling, particularly after several decades of sanctions by US imperialism, undermined its economy, and specifically its oil industry. But, compared to other countries in the region, its role, in that regard appears to be minor. Trump's claim that Venezuela was responsible for the large majority of fentanyl smuggled into the US, is just another typical Trump lie. It accounts for only around 1%. Remember that previously, Trump, in order to justify his imposition of tariffs on Canada and Mexico, had claimed that they too were responsible for a large part of the fentanyl smuggled into the US.

Moreover, Trump has just pardoned the former Honduran President, Juan Orlando Hernández, who actually had been involved in, and convicted of significant drug trafficking into the US. That was part of Trump's direct involvement in influencing elections in Latin America, as with, also, his sanctioning of Brazil for having indicted Bolsonaro for having attempted a coup, similar to that Trump attempted in the US in 2021, and his $40 billion gift to Milei's regime in Argentina ahead of its recent elections. As far as his concern with upholding democracy, it is clearly a joke, given Trump's admiration for every dictator across the globe, so long as he thinks they can serve his personal purposes for enrichment.

And that is a characteristic of Trump's mafia regime that demarcates it from previous US regimes. In the past, US President's essentially operated in the interests of US imperialism. As with all top level bourgeois politicians, the lining of their own pockets was taken for granted, as a perk of the job, but that is something that flows to them, after they leave office, in the form of lucrative positions on the boards of large companies and so on. Trump has no time for such niceties and conventions. He seeks to grab what he can, as quickly as he can. He reflects the same mindset as a petty-bourgeois in some developing economy, who finds themselves, in the fortunate position of access to the state's coffers and resources.

So, when Trump puts the squeeze on Zelensky's regime in Ukraine, it is the typical mafia style protection racket. Give us access to your vast mineral resources, or no more arms. Trump's threats to the EU are of the same kind, except, as the EU leaders have allowed themselves to tie their colours to Zelensky's corrupt regime, they are left trying to cajole Trump, and to promise to spend billions of dollars more on buying additional US weapons – 63% of EU arms spending goes to US weapons companies – as well as, having boycotted cheap Russian oil and gas, now having to buy billions of dollars more oil and gas from the US. Trump's support for the genocide in Palestine, which like the Ukraine war follows on from the policy of the Biden regime, is another clear example of this. The Zionist regime sees further sanctioned colonial expansion, whilst Trump sees the opportunity for his own business empire to expand into the provision of luxury resorts on Gazan prime beach front. He is reminiscent of Gene Hackman's portrayal of Lex Luthor, in the first Superman, who sought to explode nuclear weapons in California to cause a huge earthquake just for his own personal gain.

This is the way the original merchant adventurers and pirates operated, enriching themselves, whilst also acting as the vanguard of colonial powers, as they formed colonial empires across the globe in the 17th century. As I pointed out a while ago, that colonialism was the form that imperialism took in the era of mercantilism, and it came to an end when large-scale industrial capitalism became dominant at the end of the 19th/start of the 20th century, and established modern imperialism. But, in the last 40 years, in the developed economies of the West, that dominance of large-scale industrial capital has been undermined, as a ruling class of rentiers, has emerged – owners of fictitious-capital – concerned more to increase their nominal wealth via speculation, and capital gains, rather than by actual investment in the accumulation of capital.

In the end, as the owners of that fictitious-capital – shares, bonds, and so on – they are still dependent upon the creation of surplus-value/profits by large-scale industrial capital, but they are trapped in a vice. They have become addicted to those capital gains, and any expansion of real capital, now threatens those gains, much as happened in the period 1965-1985, when rising interest rates caused asset prices to fall, in real terms. Their long term wealth, revenues and power depends on capital accumulation, their short term interest, now, depends on restraining capital accumulation and economic growth, in order to avoid further crashes in asset prices like those of 1987, 1990, 1994, 2000, and 2008.

The ruling class owners of fictitious-capital seek to escape that vice, firstly by a delusional resort to perpetual inflation of the currency supply, so as to channel that liquidity into the purchase of their increasingly worthless paper assets, to keep up their prices. Secondly, they seek to boost realised profits without any equivalent increase in capital accumulation. To do that they have to reduce costs, by reducing trade frictions and so on. That is what globalisation was about, and it is what the EU was about. But, the consequence was that sluggish capital accumulation and economic growth, led to a relative expansion of the impoverished petty-bourgeoisie, as former industrial workers unable to find work as wage-labourers, became self-employed labourers, traders and so on – the gilets jaunes, or white van man. Many also, sank into the black economy, a growth that took off in the 1980's, with widespread smuggling of tobacco and alcohol, and of course, drugs.

It is this growth of the impoverished petty-bourgeoisie, which expanded by 50% since the 1980's, that is the social layer upon which the likes of Trump in the US, Farage in Britain, Le Pen in France, and so on has been based. The interests of this reactionary petty-bourgeoisie, are antagonistic to those of the ruling-class, as well as to the interests of the working-class. Indeed, as Lenin pointed out in his polemics against the Narodniks, the interests of the working-class, are far more aligned with the interests of the ruling-class, than with those of the petty-bourgeoisie. The first two classes look forward, whereas the latter looks backward. The only modification to that, now, as set out above, is that, whilst the working-class, and professional middle-class, as the collective owners of socialised capital, continue to look forward, the ruling-class, as owners of fictitious-capital, who have become addicted to speculation/gambling, are restrained in their forward horizons.

The global ruling-class continues to seek a continuation of globalisation, a removal of national barriers and trade restrictions, because that is the way to boost realised profits, by reducing costs, and raising the rate of turnover of capital. But, its own actions have created a monster that is eating it alive. That monster is not, today, the working-class, but the reactionary petty-bourgeoisie. It is the likes of Trump, Farage, Le Pen and so on, and worse, for that ruling-class, the reliance on the façade of bourgeois-democracy, on the power of the ballot, and of elected governments, has handed a powerful weapon to that reactionary petty-bourgeoisie, whose strength has always been in its numbers. The bankruptcy of social-democracy, has, therefore, led former conservative social-democrats, to seek to cling to office by appeasing that reactionary petty-bourgeois mass. Hence, Starmer's adoption of the reactionary, petty-bourgeois nationalist mantra of Brexit, and subsequent careening into the gutter politics of racism, and the scapegoating of migrants.

It is no coincidence, therefore, as I noted some weeks ago, that, as these political regimes, in the US and UK, have been captured by the forces of that reactionary petty-bourgeoisie, and all of its attendant ideological baggage, associated with the period prior to the dominance of large-scale industrial capital, it has also begun to revert to the form of imperialism of that period, too, i.e. colonialism. That is most notable in relation to the proposal to establish a colonial regime in Gaza, under the control of the UK and US. Trump's fanciful claim that he is going to “run” Venezuela, is of the same kind.

Some of Trump's own propagandists are open in admitting that.

That is not to say that there cannot be some shared goals between this reactionary petty-bourgeois agenda, and those of the ruling-class. The ruling-class continued to utilise the existing colonial empires, and network of commercial operations for decades, for example. The reactionary petty-bourgeois regime of Zionism, and its colonialist agenda, has also been used by US imperialism, as it seeks to establish Israel as the major regional sub-imperialist power, and the creation of a single market, in the Middle-East and North Africa. Allowing Trump and his mafia regime to think its all about their own personal gain, is a small price for imperialism and the ruling class to pay to achieve that end, just as allowing the Zionists to think its all about their colonial expansion fulfils the same function.

For Trump, the mafia style kidnapping of Maduro is primarily about this same kind of personal gain. It is the same kind of mindset as the old colonialist land-grab. Trump embodies both aspects of those old colonial regimes, based upon mercantilism. Mercantilism was a transitional regime in which the old landed aristocracy, in rapid decline, allied with the rising commercial bourgeoisie. The old landed aristocracy used the merchant adventurers, to seize foreign lands. The merchants enriched themselves from the buying up of cheap cheap commodities, and their sale in their home markets, whilst the landed aristocracy expanded their estates overseas, and consequently their rental income. Trump wants to grab those cheap commodities – Venezuela has the world's largest oil reserves, for example, - and he, also, has his eye on further opportunities to acquire land on the cheap, to build his hotels, casinos, and golf resorts.

But, that is not the prime concern of the ruling-class, even just its US component. Ed Conway has noted that US imperialism has more than enough of its own oil, already, as a result of the development of shale oil, for example. A large rise in global oil supplies, which would reduce global oil prices, will actually undermine US shale oil production, because of its high costs of production. 

Trump with an eye on his rapidly collapsing electoral support, may well, see the short-term advantage of cheap petrol prices. As Ed Conway has noted, however, one concern of US imperialism, especially as the EU has become more dependent on US oil and gas, as a result of boycotting cheap Russian oil and gas, is that the US oil refineries are geared to the processing of the kind of heavy crude oil that comes from Venezuela. US production of this heavy oil has been declining, and so to run these refineries at economic levels, requires a supply of that Venezuelan oil.

Trump's colonialist agenda, therefore, aligns with the interests of US imperialism, even if the political representatives of that imperialism, i.e. the social-democrats, would have gone about it differently. As I pointed out last year, as globalisation broke down under the weight of its own contradictions, which had given rise to the growth of the reactionary petty-bourgeoisie in the developed economies, and a rapid expansion of large-scale industrial capital in Asia, Latin America, and increasingly Africa, the hegemony of US imperialism inevitably broke down, as it was challenged by the rise of Chinese imperialism. The rise of Chinese imperialism created new alliances, but also asserted the basic economic realities. Trade develops first and most intensively between near neighbours.

Imperialism requires large single markets. As US hegemony broke down, and imperialist rivalry intensified, Chinese imperialism expanded its influence across Eurasia. The EU, which was formed to create such a large single market, to compete effectively with the US, is, also, increasingly drawn towards its geographical neighbours in Eurasia, undermining its previous dependence on US imperialism. In the same way, those processes make, at least, North America, the rational minimum size of single market for US imperialism, and hence the former creation of NAFTA, which Trump has, also, undermined, as he seeks to assert a similar colonialist domination over it. As I also pointed out, although the propagandists of western imperialism have continually talked about Russian aggression and expansion – rather facile given the huge territory of Russia, and its own vast resources, and its very limited military capacity – it is not Russia nor China that has been involved in the majority of military adventures over the last 50 years, or even 20 years. It has been US imperialism. It is not Russia or China threatening to seize Greenland, Canada, or the Panama Canal, but US imperialism.

True, Russia did invade Eastern Ukraine, but the actions of US imperialism, now, rather expose all of the ridiculous claims of the western imperialists and their apologists about Russia having nothing to worry about in the aggressive expansion of US/NATO imperialism up to Russia's borders, based on the claim that NATO is a purely peace-loving, defensive alliance! For Trump's mafia regime, its all about personal gain, and ambition. The idea that Trump, whose political regime cannot even run the US, and is seeing its support collapse, even amongst its petty-bourgeois, MAGA base, could run Venezuela, is as ridiculous as the idea that Trump was going to end the Ukraine War in 24 hours, or his claims to have resolved more than 8 wars, including wars between countries that were never at war!

It does again show the thoroughly bankrupt nature of western social-democracy, and its formal and informal institutions. The UN, again, shown to be completely useless, unless it is serving the interests of a hegemonic US imperialism. Some EU governments have condemned Trump's gangster regime, but with no likelihood they will go any further. Unlike their sanctions against Russia, for example, they are unlikely to put sanctions on the US, even as Trump sanctions EU politicians, institutions and diplomats, and imposes tariffs on them. The pathetic Starmer regime cannot even bring itself to condemn Trump's terroristic actions, much as it could not condemn the genocide by the Zionist regime, which it has facilitated. I await the response of the snivelling Rutte, to the actions of the monster he calls “Daddy”.

The Nobel Committee could not, with a straight face, award the Peace prize to Trump as he had demanded, but appeased him by giving it to María Corina Machado, who they saw as a potential future puppet of western imperialism. She duly adopted the role of sycophant to Trump, much in the vein of Starmer, Rutte and so on. Much as Trump has done in repaying the sycophancy of European social-democrats, by treating them with the disdain they deserve, Trump's, first action having kidnapped Maduro was to heap the same kind of disdain on Machado, as a potential replacement, declaring that she did not have the required popular support in Venezuela. Given her association with Trump, that is, now, almost certainly true, as the actions of Trump, will have been one of the greatest boosts to the reactionary Venezuelan regime they could get.

Of course, the reactionary Venezuelan ex-patriots in the US, celebrated the actions of Trump, much as the former criminal classes that thrived uner the corrupt regime of Batista, in Cuba, have continually demanded, from the sidelines in Miami, that the US overthrow the Cuban regime, and allow them to return to their previous nefarious activities. For the likes of “Little” Marco Rubio, therefore, this gangster raid on Caracas, is not the main event. He sees it as the precursor to such an invasion of Cuba. But, for US imperialism, Cuba is irrelevant. Far more significant is the creation of a single North American market, and if that has to come via, a bellicose Trump colonialism, so be it.

Trump has already made clear his colonial ambitions in respect of Mexico, Canada and Greenland. The chance of a war with Mexico, let alone Canada, in the immediate future, to that end, seems remote, but already, members of Trump's mafia regime, have sent out images of US flags flying over Greenland, in the aftermath. Given the acquiescence of European social-democrats, as Wong admitted, what is there to stop him? Trump's belligerence is not intended to foreshadow an actual war with Mexico or Canada, as with its expansionist war with Mexico in the 19th century, but to intimidate and cow, as with his imposition of tariffs.

Canada has been looking to the EU, but the reality is that it cannot compensate for its trade with the US, by increased ties with Europe, any more than Britain can compensate for its trade with the EU by increased ties with the US. For workers in North America, the solution lies not in looking to the EU, but in looking to their fellow workers in the US, and Mexico. The voluntary creation of a unified North American state is a rational, progressive development, but one that should be championed by the workers of Noth America themselves, on the basis of class unity, against the interests both of the ruling class, and the colonialist ambitions of petty-bourgeois nationalists such as Trump, and his mafia regime.

Trump cannot run Venezuela, and as with some of his previous delusional statements seems to reflect his own mental deterioration. The kidnapping of Maduro has simply resulted in the Venezuelan Vice President taking over. Trump first seemed to suggest that she was going to facilitate him running Venezuela, but the reality is that, she took the first opportunity to go on TV and demand that Maduro be released and returned. Now, Trump's apologists are trying to suggest that the Venezuelan Vice President and government have fled the country. Apparently, also untrue. Rodrigues is in Russia, but as part of trying to garner external support. The idea that they could be bullied into compliance seems unrealistic, without an actual invasion, and boots on the ground, which the US has baulked at, and would require Congressional approval.

So, the next few days are likely to see Trump frustrated once more, as the delusions are confronted by the reality. It is all a long way from the hopes of Trump's MAGA base of an end to US imperialism's military adventures and forever wars.