The US president’s reactionary agenda is born of US imperial decline, and needs to be opposed by working-class mobilisation domestically and internationally, argues John Clarke

Antonio Gramsci famously asserted that the ‘crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.’ The return of Trump to the White House seems to breathe new life into this proposition, as the buffoonish, erratic and deeply reactionary president prepares for another rampage that may well be more spectacular and damaging than his first term in office.

Quite predictably, Trump’s inauguration speech provided a strong sense of the directions his presidency would take. As Truthout showed, he framed his whole approach in the most socially backward, virulently right-wing terms imaginable. He actually claimed that he had survived an assassination attempt during the previous election because ‘God spared his life that day “to Make America Great Again”.’

A slew of regressive measures were put on the table during the ceremonies. Trump vowed to eliminate ‘diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices, falsely stating that children across the country were being taught “to be ashamed of themselves” by being given lessons describing the history of slavery and racism in the U.S.’ To further boost national pride, he also promised ‘that he would change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America”.’

Reactionary barrage

Al Jazeera reports that Trump signed 26 executive orders during first day back on the job. These may be subject to Congressional restrictions and court rulings, but they constitute a reactionary barrage covering a wide range of issues. A few examples will readily provide a sense of the brutal offensive that the incoming administration will be taking up.

Trump established a ‘Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an organisation within the president’s executive office overseen by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.’ Its mandate will be to ‘dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure federal agencies.’ It is widely anticipated that this will translate into huge public-sector job losses and devastating social cutbacks.

Trump has decided that international ‘drug cartels are to be designated as “terrorist organisations”.’ He claims that in ‘certain portions of Mexico, they function as quasi-governmental entities.’ It is feared that this might provide a pretext for US military aggression against Mexico and it has been interpreted as such by the Mexican president.

A ‘national energy emergency’ has been declared that ‘allows [Trump] to facilitate the speedy identification, leasing, siting, production, transportation, refining, and generation of US energy resources, including on federal lands.’ Trump is, of course, a notorious climate denier who intends to apply vigorously the appallingly Republican slogan ‘drill, baby, drill!’, and he took care to include, in his opening initiatives, the decision to withdraw the US from the Paris climate agreement, as he did during his first presidency.

According to the Washington Post, Trump has also signalled early plans to use tariffs on imported goods as a key weapon in relations with the United States’ top-three trading partners, saying that the first new taxes on foreign products could be announced on 1 February. He told reporters that ‘he is considering putting 25 percent tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods “because they’re allowing vast numbers of people and fentanyl to come in” to the United States.’

While tariffs would have very major implications for Mexico and Canada, Trump will use them against those countries as a means of obtaining immediate concessions on trade and border security. In the case of China, tariffs would be used on a far more sustained basis to try to impede its rising economic power and increasing capacity to compete with US interests globally. However, Trump is considering the use of tariffs against a range of competitors, including the EU. Clearly, ‘tariffs are a favored tool for Trump, and one that he is willing to employ far more frequently than other presidents have for nearly a century.’ He confidently informed reporters that ‘we’re going to make a lot of money from tariffs.’

When it comes to Trump’s dealings with Israel, it appears that he will be much firmer than Biden when it comes to ensuring that the Zionist state accepts its role as a junior partner. It has been widely reported that Trump exerted pressure to ensure that a Gaza ceasefire would be accepted and Trump has been much less forgiving than Biden over Israel’s efforts to delay its withdrawal from Lebanon.

Though Trump’s commanding role and grand designs must be accepted, there is no doubt that the incoming president will allow Israel to intensify its drive to complete its colonial project at the expense of the Palestinians. He made sure to send a message by immediately lifting the sanctions that Biden had imposed on ‘several far-right individuals and groups accused of perpetrating violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.’

Trump has made massive immigration raids, deportations and stringent border enforcement key elements of his reactionary plans. It had been strongly suggested that major raids would be set in motion without any delay and might well take place in the very first days of his administration. NBC News, however, reported that, two days into Trump’s term, ‘arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers appear to remain along the lines of “routine operations”.’

Trump’s propensity for bluster aside, it is nonetheless quite obvious that a major initiative is being prepared. He signed ‘a raft of executive orders cracking down on immigration’ and the Department of Homeland Security has announced that it is ‘ending a policy that restricted Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents’ ability to arrest undocumented people at or near so-called sensitive locations, including houses of worship, schools and hospitals.’

Declining power

Trump will unleash a class war domestically and, on the international front, his America First approach will be advanced very aggressively. It will be mercilessly imposed on the exploited countries of the Global South and, of course, on China, as the leading global rival. However, even other Western ‘trading partners’ will be challenged with demands for more favourable terms.

On 23 January, Trump told a gathering of the World Economic Forum that he will be ‘demanding respect from other nations’ and he suggested that the present trading arrangements with Canada had to be completely redrawn. ‘We don’t need them to make our cars, and they make a lot of them. We don’t need their lumber because we have our own forests. We don’t need their oil and gas. We have more than anybody,’ he told the forum, repeating his assertion that Canada should accept a place as one of the US states.

Ever since World War Two, the dominant role of the US in global affairs has been a highly sophisticated undertaking. The US was always ready to unleash its military might and to establish the most repressive and dictatorial regimes on the countries it exploited. However, care was also taken to establish international institutions and agreements that provided a level of legitimacy and that did involve some give and take.

Though the US remains the leading power, it now contends with a series of global and regional challenges, with China taking its place as a new ‘workshop of the world’. Representing the most reckless and reactionary elements within the US ruling establishment, Trump is openly hostile to notions of multilateralism and the preservation of a stable international order. He wants to ‘make America great again’ with a ‘transactional’ approach that forces concessions from rivals and competitors, with little regard for global stability.

His first erratic effort to proceed along these lines alarmed the bulk of the US establishment, but Biden’s attempt to restore respected US global stewardship, while it was initially looked to with great hope, proved to be a dismal failure. Biden could neither retain popular legitimacy nor win the confidence of the capitalist class. In the wake of this debacle, Trump has returned in triumph and he is determined to resume his course with even greater determination and ruthlessness than last time.

Trump is as contemptuous of legal niceties and constitutional restraints as he is of any concept of an international rule of law. He is a morbid symptom of US decline but he expresses a dangerous reactionary rage in the face of it. No effective challenge to him will be found within the political power structure. His advance can only be turned back by working-class mobilisation and global resistance, both of which will be greatly needed in days to come.