the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Jan 20, 2025
By the time this paper will be printed, Donald Trump will have been sworn in as the 47th president of the United States. He’ll be beginning his second (non-consecutive) term in office.
To many Democrats and liberals, this is the worst thing that could ever happen—the second coming of Hitler, or even of the Devil himself.
For many of Trump’s supporters, he’s expected to perform miracles: to end wars across the globe, to lower prices overnight, to bring back desperately needed manufacturing jobs. Even many working people who hope for something better just hope that his election will bring about a lowering of grocery prices.
In reality, despite all the hyperbole and despite Trump’s own boasts and flamboyant pronouncements, Trump is nothing more than the latest in bourgeois politicians to occupy the Oval Office—a role created by the “Founding Fathers,” the capitalist class, to serve their needs and run their system. Trump may seem like a loose cannon, but he knows who his masters are, and he is ready to serve them.
This can be seen clearly by who his political friends are. Not only are “Tech Bros” like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos cozying up to him; his inauguration fund has received over 150 million dollars in donations, including many one-million-dollar donations from many different corporations. They’re not donating out of the kindness of their hearts, or just because they want to get on Trump’s good side. They’re donating because they know that he will act in their interests, whatever he does.
But when it came to promises made to the working class, Trump wasted no time in backpedaling, even before he got into office. Lowering grocery prices, the main thing working people hope to see, suddenly became “very hard to do.” Ending wars? No, he’s threatening more wars.
And in this way, he’s no different from any other president before him—not Biden, not Obama, not Bush or Clinton. Obama promised “Hope and Change.” What change did he bring about? He bailed out the banks, pumped billions into the banking system, and let millions of homeowners lose their houses after the 2008 banking debacle. Biden proclaimed himself the most pro-labor president ever, because he showed up for a few minutes on a UAW picket line; but he forced the end to the railroad workers’ strike.
And it’s clear that Democrats do not see Trump as the existential threat to “democracy” that they painted him as. Biden kept many of the policies and tariffs that Trump enacted while in office the first time. And his support for Israel in its slaughter of Gaza could hardly be considered better than whatever Trump does. Democrats and Republicans know very well that ultimately, they’re all on the same side. And it’s not the side of the working class. Ever.
What Trump is VERY good at is distraction. He may be doing it for his own benefit, but it helps his fellow capitalists at every turn. Whether it’s pointing to immigrants at the border as our “enemies,” or just saying crazy things to inflame outrage among liberal media outlets concerned with protecting the “norms” of how the system works. We’re all supposed to be outraged along WITH him, or outraged AGAINST him. What a useful distraction! Especially if there are working class people on both sides of that equation, and they end up blaming each other for whatever happens.
No, working people need to be united—not only against him, but against every single politician the capitalists throw at us.
The essayist and political commentator H.L. Mencken had this to say almost 100 years ago: “The whole aim of practical politics … is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.” Donald Trump, as a bourgeois politician, is delivering that in spades, for those who follow him AND those who fear him.
Meanwhile, the more workers are distracted and blaming each other, he and his fellow politicians, and the capitalists they serve, can turn around and screw us over.
The ONLY answer for working people is to not expect anything to change fundamentally, whether Democrats or Republicans are elected. But instead, to organize our own party, our own political force, so that the working class can appear on the political scene in its own name in preparation to use our power to transform this society.