'Commie' Trump’s 'national socialism' will make 'America wind up like China': analysis
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U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with reporters, as he departs for travel to Pennsylvania (Reuters)
The Bulwark's Jonathan Last says that President Donald Trump's latest foray into national socialism makes him "a commie," but as opposed to Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-VT) democratic socialism, Trump's brand is "not compatible with liberal democracy."
Last points to some of the Trump administration's actions as examples of national socialism, including Trump's tapping of Westinghouse to build nuclear power plants for $80 billion.
"In return, he has compelled Westinghouse to " pay him the government 20 percent of any 'cash distributions,'" Last writes.
"Between now and the end of January 2029, the government can compel Westinghouse to go public via an IPO, at which point the government will be awarded 20 percent ownership of the company, likely making it the single largest shareholder," he adds.
This, Last explains, "is literally seizing the means of production. But to, you know, make America great again Or something."
Other examples of Trump's "national socialist policies" include "refusing to enforce the 2024 law requiring the sale of TikTok until he was able to compel that the business be sold at an extortionately discounted price to his political allies," Last writes.
"Requiring Nvidia and AMD to pay the government 15 percent of all revenues from chip sales to China; acquiring a 10 percent ownership stake in chipmaker Intel; acquiring a 15 percent stake in rare earth producers MP Materials, a 10 percent stake in Lithium Americas Corp., and a 10 percent stake in Trilogy Metals Inc.; creating a 'Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile'; and taking steps to create a sovereign wealth fund to be used as a vehicle for government investment," Last writes.
Trump has also demanded that Microsoft fire Lisa Monaco, the company's President of Global Affairs, due to her previous roles in the Biden and Obama administrations, Last explains, and Trump's demanding of private law firms committing to doing pro bono work "on behalf of clients he chooses for them," are two more examples of his national socialism.
And while Last says, "this is not quite the economic regime of China or Saudi Arabia," "it's in the same zip code. And it’s heading in their general direction and away from the regulated American free market economy as it had existed until ten months ago."
What Trump is doing, Last says, is obvious, yet no one has actually admitted it — until now.
"So why is it so hard for people to just say, out loud, what is obvious: Donald Trump is a socialist who is trying to make the American economy function more like Communist China?" Last asks.
Last explains that while "there are different flavors of socialism," noting that Sanders' style of "democratic socialism is modeled not on China, but on Scandinavia," "the national socialists surrounding Trump" want different things.
Among those things include "a state-directed economy in which economic activity must be sanctioned by the president, meaning that businesses must ally themselves with the president in the hopes that the president makes decisions which beat the market — i.e., create more growth than the economy would have created if left to its own devices," Last says.
He also points to the contentious New York City mayoral race in which if leading Democratic socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani wins as he is predicted to, Trump and his cohorts will use his brand of socialism to deflect blame on others.
"It is a stone-cold mortal lock that every bad thing that happens in New York City over the next three years is going to be hung around Zohran Mamdani and the Democratic party’s necks as the fruits of 'socialism,'" Last says.
"Maybe Mamdani’s mayoralty will be a failure. But he could be the second coming of La Guardia and if there’s a robbery on a bus? Socialism. Your favorite bagel shop closes? Socialism. The Yankees miss the playoffs? Socialism. That’s just the reality. You know it. I know it. The American people know it," he writes.
But, Last says, "there are two forms of socialism on the march in America."
"The Sanders/Mamdani style of democratic socialism is, whatever its merits, at least compatible with America’s tradition of liberal democracy. The Trump style of national socialism is not," he notes.
"If you follow the logic of democratic socialism to the horizon, America winds up like Scandinavia. If you follow the logic of national socialism to the horizon, America winds up like China. So even when it comes to socialism it’s not, you know, both sides."