It is not only the blue-collar working class of the USA, fed up with the hawkish politics and imperialist ideology of traditional Democrats and Republicans, who now see they have been had by their hero, current President Donald Trump.
By pinning their hopes on this violent and ridiculous demagogue, much of the working class was able to express their anger against an establishment that has, for too long, shown itself insensible to their lot through both its policies and its attitudes towards them. People have had enough of soldiers risking their lives in far-off, meaningless conflicts, enough of big corporations offshoring jobs to Asia, where wages and working conditions are even worse than in the US.
Today, they are seeing the prices of basic necessities rise despite the commitments of their leader to reduce them, and tomorrow they will realize that the El Dorado promised by their hyperbolist-in-chief is only for the establishment they despise. Their purchasing power will continue to stagnate.
The United States is weak, according to Emmanuel Todd (After the Empire, Columbia University Press, 2003). It has a GDP liable to error, as so much of its capital accumulation is essentially taking place in sectors of little tangible relevance, such as financial speculation and law firms. There are not enough engineers or skilled workers in the country to repatriate all the industries that moved to Canada, to Mexico and to Asia over the past few decades. The average American will soon realize that consumer prices are increasing because the President imposed tariffs on a multitude of goods crossing the border; this will impact prices, and there are not enough well-paying jobs to boost his income. The miracle of good jobs is not going to happen. It will be washed away in a downward spiral that we can already foresee. To deny it, the propaganda that already circulates at unprecedented levels will have no scapegoats left to blame and no distractions left to rely on.
Working-class voters will have buyer’s remorse. They wanted change; but by wanting something different, and merely choosing something contrasting without further reflection, they have found themselves in an even worse situation. They should have been looking to the left (Bernie Sanders during the Democratic primaries) rather than to the far right. Policies that benefit the public, like regulating working conditions, taxing extreme wealth and big business, environmental protection, targeted tariffs on countries that break these rules, and so forth, are always more helpful than racism, discrimination, stupidity, paranoid rhetoric and dreams of domination.
Those countries whose feathers have been ruffled by Washington, if they have any self-confidence whatsoever (and it is not yet clear that Canada does), will strengthen their productive autonomy in order to satisfy domestic demand, and learn how to improve trade relations among themselves. On a smaller scale, regions impacted by these policies in terms of employment can develop the economy of their bioregion, the form of geographical organization of the future. They will develop a taste for greater self-sufficiency.
The orange guru will have no more followers except his most devoted cult members. Those taken in by the hypnotic speeches of this yahoo politician and by the social media algorithms selling the latest twaddle he spouts, will continue to glorify America’s badly coiffed tyrant. As for the problems of history, they will play a game of misdirection, blaming such figures as George Soros and Bill Gates, and vilifying people who have long since left the political scene, like Joe Biden or Nancy Pelosi. They will never criticize capitalism as an unjust system or think about social class. Trump and his ilk will still be backed by the lunatic fringe of diehard racists and misogynists that our society harbours.
This picture would remain incomplete if we failed to note that the dupes of the reality TV show currently filmed at the White House are not only the little people. We don’t have to go back too far here in New Brunswick to recall that the greatest potentates of this colony have cozied up to the controversial leader. One clue from July of 2019 demonstrates this fact: While two sons of the Holy Family still ruled the Irving business empire, which at the time ran Brunswick News, the company rejected an editorial cartoon by Michael de Adder and terminated its relationship with him. The cartoonist’s misdeed was drawing a scathing caricature of Donald Trump. One can only deduce that it is unacceptable in this place to offend the buffoon who was then serving his first term in office, especially if it involves attacking Trump’s cruel indifference towards the suffering of people attempting to cross the USA’s southern border, people subjected to a violent policy of expulsion and xenophobia.
Even in this remote corner of the earth, one must not offend the Apprentice-Dictator. His policies were good for business; those, at least, that benefit from America’s public infrastructure but are based in Bermuda, hidden away from Big Government’s prying eyes. Irving is a mini-multinational, which prefers to diversify its investments in a myriad of subsidiaries in one particular region, instead of specializing in a single product on a global scale. Nonetheless, Irving has a strong presence in the United States, namely in the financial centre of Boston. There Arthur Irving passed away last May. There the Irving logo is displayed in the renowned Fenway Park.
But, behold! We read in a February 13th story on the CBC website that Saint John, NB, the capital of Irvingland, is the most tariff-exposed city in Canada, and stands to suffer the most from the escalating trade war triggered by the temperamental president. According to no less an authority than the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the energy market transactions that take place in Saint John (by which they mean the oil refinery’s sales) risk falling drastically. The mood swings of the president, who proudly boasts of being “greedy,” may cost the Irving legacy dearly.
This is a revealing sign that, in the Western world, contemporary capitalism has lost control, can no longer organize itself and has no clear future ahead of it.
Alain Deneault teaches philosophy at Université de Moncton, Shippagan Campus.
A French version of this commentary was first published in Acadie Nouvelle on February 19, 2025.
