Get ready to make some uncomfortable alliances.
Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders is a self-described ‘democratic socialist.’
He’s also more pro-trade than U.S. President Donald Trump.
In a recent social media statement, Sanders criticized Donald Trump’s tariffs and called for a more targeted approach:
“Our trade policies should benefit American workers, not just corporate CEOs.
That includes targeted tariffs to stop corporations from outsourcing American jobs & factories.
We do not need a blanket, arbitrary sales tax that will raise prices on products that Americans need.”
This is a bigger deal than it seems. A democratic socialist is more pro-trade than the U.S. President, a President from a political party that has long promoted itself as pro-trade, pro-market, and pro-capitalist. Targeted tariffs – of the kind Sanders and many figures from across the political spectrum support for various reasons – are generally considered reasonable when implemented precisely. Unfortunately, Trump’s tariffs are the opposite.
MAGA communism?
For a while, the idea of ‘MAGA communism’ was a joke, with only a few strange far-left & far-right online figures promoting it. The overarching idea – which few took seriously – was that Trump’s alignment with Russia, his disdain for the institutions that helped the West win the Cold War (particularly NATO), his opposition to free trade, his zero-sum worldview, his affinity for communist-linked dictators (former KGB agent Putin, Communist Party leader Xi Jinping), his veneration of labour jobs over service jobs, and his creation of a personality cult were all similar to elements of communism as it was implemented in numerous nations throughout history.
Reading the above, you can likely see the similarities between ‘MAGA thought’ & ‘Communist thought’. Yet, it still all seemed so implausible to imagine that a movement backing a Republican President could have links to communist ideology. After all, Trump has built a political alliance with Elon Musk, the world’s richest man. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, META CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai all notably attended Trump’s inauguration, and Trump has long been linked to right-leaning billionaires. Why would conservative billionaires want to support a movement that thinks the way communists do?
The answer, of course, is that they don’t. They supported Donald Trump, thinking they were getting Trump 1.0. Trump’s first time was, until COVID-19, largely defined by a combination of Trump’s daily media distraction in the foreground and traditional Republican economic policy in the background. The Republicans increased the estate tax exemption from $5.6 million to $11.2 million. The corporate tax, which ranged from 15% at the low end to 39% at the high end, was changed to a flat rate of 21%. Tariffs were relatively limited and focused mostly on China, and trade deals, such as NAFTA, were renegotiated rather than abrogated.
Pro-business Republican voices held sway over policy, and Trump’s predilection for tariffs and protectionism was largely held in check. Business leaders, billionaires, entrepreneurs, and many rank-and-file conservatives in the United States and across the Western world thus convinced themselves that they could ‘ignore the noise’ of Trump’s rhetoric and get the pro-business policies they desired. This proved to be a big political advantage for Donald Trump in the 2024 election. Even as some of his close aides from the first term warned that ‘Trump 2.0’ would be a very different beast, and even as those aides warned Trump was dangerously unfit for power, many ignored those warnings because they assumed it was just more ‘noise.’
It wasn’t.
Trump 2.0 is closer to socialism than free-market capitalism
Donald Trump has long despised trade. There are clips of him from the 1980s railing against Japan and calling for significant tariffs. It’s been the one consistent theme of his public persona for decades. It was suppressed in his first term by traditional Republicans. It’s not suppressed any longer.
Donald Trump has purged or distanced himself from most of the traditional Republicans and rational businesspeople like Mike Pence, Gary Cohn, and Steve Mnuchin. He has cowed most of the Republican Senate and Congressional leadership. His hold over the Republican base remains strong. Right-wing media have largely abandoned any sense of ideological consistency and now serve as propagandists who promote whatever Trump says, regardless of how absurd it is.
Trump also has an increasingly messianic view of himself, believing he was “saved by God so he could save America.” If he believes that his worldview is divinely inspired and unchallengable, why would he listen to anyone else? When someone is locked into that kind of mindset, opposition is viewed as nothing more than a signal that it’s time to double down and deepen your resolve.
Trump feels ‘liberated’ to say and do what he believes. He is thus also increasingly liberated from sanity. Trump believes that trade is bad, mutually-beneficial exchange doesn’t exist, power should be concentrated in the executive, and autarky is preferable to working with others. Trump’s core instincts are simply far closer to socialism than to free market capitalism.
And this is being reflected in the words of those who are now promoting Trump’s tariff agenda. Here are two examples of recent social media messages by prominent right-wing influencers and Trump supporters online:
The Quartering:
“You do NOT need the new iPad
You do NOT need the new Cell Phone
You do NOT need the new video game consoleYou WANT them
There is a big difference and if you look at the people whining about the tariffs I challenge you to ask them how their lives have been affected in any way”
Benny Johnson:
“Losing money means nothing. Digital ones and zeroes. In the end, you won’t miss any of it.
Losing your country costs you everything. You will never get that back. Your kids will be slaves to foreign powers who hate us.
Without America First policies, we become slaves. Fight…”
These sentiments are being echoed by the most sycophantic pro-Trump Senators like Tommy Tuberville, who defended Trump’s tariff agenda, saying, “It’s gonna be a slow pain first before we get the gain.”
These statements are disturbingly similar to the way communists view the world. The idea that the state tells you what you need, rather than you deciding for yourself, is decidedly anti-market, anti-capitalist, and statist. The idea that you will somehow ‘lose your country’ because you trade with others is similar to autarkic arguments made by communists who felt trade would lead to ‘infiltration’ and ‘corruption’ from ‘the West.’ The idea that you need to endure pain for the ideological whims of a central ‘leader’ is what communist states often claimed.
Thus, it is no exaggeration to say we are seeing an unprecedented assault on free trade, free markets, capitalism, limited government, and rationality – all to satisfy an American President who fundamentally despises the values, principles, and ideas that helped to build up the Western world.
A coalition of the sane
With all of the above in mind, let’s return to the point made at the outset. If you believe trade is generally beneficial, then you are now in a ‘coalition of the sane’ that is so widespread as to include democratic socialists like Bernie Sanders, Wall Street investors revolting against Trump’s trade agenda, and vast numbers of consumers and workers who – in poll after poll – oppose tariff tax hikes.
This is uncomfortable for many. If you oppose socialism, it feels strange to be on the same side as Bernie Sanders. If you have a dim view of capitalism, it feels strange to hear your concerns echoed by Wall Street titans.
How do we make sense of this?
We make sense of it by recognizing that, beyond ideology, we all have the capacity to assess reality, adjust to reality, and refine our worldview based on that assessment and adjustment to reality. What it requires is an openness to new information and a desire to align with the truth that takes precedence over our desire to align with our ideology.
Wall Street titans, Bernie Sanders, and many of us in between are watching Trump’s tariffs wipe out trillions of dollars in value, hurt entrepreneurs and workers, deepen global instability, weaken the Western alliance, and raise the risk of conflict. We can recognize that those are negative outcomes, and thus recognize that opposing the political force bringing about those outcomes – Trumpism – is a logical move.
We see this here in Canada, where Canadians across the political and ideological spectrum, and demographic divides, are united in our opposition to Donald Trump. Some things are just true, and Donald Trump’s unfitness for office and dangerous view of trade are among them.
So, let’s embrace this sense of discomfort. Let’s embrace new allies, rather than pushing them away. Yes, it’s going to be strange working with those we once may have considered ideological opposites, but that discomfort could very well lead to a powerful new long-term consensus in favour of trade, openness, innovation, freedom, the rule of law, and – above all – sanity. That would be a development worth celebrating, and we can all play a role in making it happen.
Spencer Fernando
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