The rise of Trump and Trumpism cannot be fully explained without first recognizing how, over the last two decades, American politics has been shaped by the rise of China.
Despite both parties preferring to deemphasize foreign policy in their campaigns, US foreign policy is the engine driving domestic policy. This is because modern US domestic politics is fundamentally a game of dividing up the plunder that foreign policy secures.
This plunder arrives in the form of persistent federal govt budget deficits which are maintained via the exorbitant privilege of the US dollar’s position as global reserve currency, an arrangement forced upon the rest of the globe in the ashes of the world wars of last century.
Since WW2, this unilateral global arrangement has been maintained through a mixture of brute force, monopoly control of global institutions, and a healthy dose of quid pro quo with its junior partners that comprise the western world.
In the same way that domestic politics is downstream of foreign policy, US elections are downstream of real disagreements amongst factions within the US bourgeoisie. The two political parties represent the diverging PR strategies by which empire is sold to the underclasses.
The increasing polarization of mainstream domestic politics can thus be attributed not to the rise of social media, “foreign interference”, or other facile explanations liberal pundits offer, but rather to a real divergence in imperial strategy given life by partisan jockeying.
Historically, the factions comprising this divide have been the domestic bourgeoisie+petit bourg. elements on one side and the financial/international bourg. on the other.
Until recently, the former was given political form by the GOP, the latter by the Dems.
But over the past year, the tech giants that account for a sizable portion of Dem party backing appeared to switch sides and coalesce their support behind Trump.
What caused this sudden shift?
In a word: China
For years, China represented both a massive labor and manu. hub for US outsourcing, and a massive consumer market for US-branded goods.
But recently–-accelerated by US tariffs and the pandemic–-Chinese-branded goods have begun out-competing those from the US.
As a result, Silicon Valley—which has historically seen their interests best served by Dem-led foreign policy—are now casting their lot with Trump and his more openly hostile stance toward China.
Musk’s open campaigning for Trump really only makes sense in light of his (correct) anticipation that China’s domestic manufacturers will rapidly overtake Tesla as the worldwide leader in EVs.
Thus, in just a few years, America’s tech giants have shifted from seeking to maintain China as a market and manufacturing hub, to finding themselves facing a formidable competitor. In this way, they are now in a similar position the US domestic bourg. faced decades prior.
With both major factions in US capital now under increasing threat of competition from the same source, capital is unified in backing the horse they believe has the winning strategy: open confrontation with China.
American liberals have largely failed to notice this sudden alignment of capital behind Trump because their lofty rhetoric serves only to obscure their own view of US imperial policy and are thus unable to understand the source of the apparent decay.
Liberals didn’t dislike Bush because he killed a million Iraqis, but because of the gaffs and embarrassment he brought to the office. He struck a blow at the heart of liberal identity, which is heavily tied to a perceived sense of respectability of US empire. Trump does the same.
But from the perspective of the rest of the world, the neoliberal era was the aberration.
Trump represents a return to an era of more honest US politics without the sneering veneer of respectability liberals value. An era of open hostility to secure naked self-interest.
Contrary to what frustrated liberal pundits will assert tomorrow, Americans as a whole aren't "dumb", which is often a lazy way of accusing groups of “voting against their own self-interest”. Trump voters are very aware of what they are getting with Trump.
Liberals may pull out their hair and point toward Trump’s unapologetic self-interest as proof of his unsuitability for the role.
But this self-interest is exactly what his voters ordered, and hope he will deliver.
It has been said that “liberalism is capitalism’s lying smile, fascism is capitalism’s honest fists”.
Americans have once again voted for the fists, and this time, it appears they have a majority of US capital behind them