Trump bringing Marxism to U.S. better than Marx could’ve hoped

By David McElroy · May 25, 2025

Donald Trump is the most effective agent of Marxist economics the United States has ever seen.

Let that sink in.

The president who is beloved by many who scream about the dangers of socialism and wave flags that say “Don’t Tread on Me” is dragging this country further into the economic worldview of Karl Marx than the Soviets ever dreamed possible. And what’s worse? His followers cheer him for it.

I know better than to think Trump is reading Das Kapital in the middle of the night. He probably couldn’t distinguish Karl Marx from Groucho Marx. But his policies — his economic instincts — align with the collectivist, central-planning ideals that defined Marx’s vision of how to run a society. The irony is grotesque. The former host of The Apprentice is becoming the accidental apprentice of Marx himself.

Let’s look at the facts.

Start with Trump’s love for tariffs. In his first term, he slapped fairly minor tariffs on Chinese goods in a self-proclaimed effort to “bring jobs back” and “protect American workers.” And as soon as he was back in office, he doubled and tripled down on this economic illiteracy.

He launched a massive trade war. He pretends the targets are people in other countries who won’t do what he prefers. The truth is the you and I are the targets.

Trump doesn’t believe we have the freedom to trade with those of our own choosing. He doesn’t believe you and I have the right to buy from people in other countries who are willing to sell us cheaper goods. He has the idea that he should be able to decide where products are made and who makes them.

Even this week, he’s threatening to slap even more tariffs on iPhones if Apple doesn’t find a way to assemble them in the U.S. instead of India. (Apple has been trying to shift production from China to India to escape tariffs against China.)

Trump claims all of this is going to “make American wealthy again.” Even if you can ignore the fact that he wants to take away our freedom to trade however we choose, he is trying to bring jobs back to America that Americans do not want.

All of this rhetoric sounds great if you’re the kind of person who thinks an economy is just a football team that needs a strong coach in total control to tell everybody what to do. But in reality, it’s central planning dressed in red, white and blue. Trump decided he could manipulate international trade with a few signature strokes. Instead, he’s sending the world economy — including the U.S. economy — into the tank.

In Marxist theory, the state protects and controls the “means of production” for the supposed benefit of the workers. Trump’s economic nationalism claims to do exactly that. He doesn’t trust the market. He trusts himself. He treats the economy like it’s his former casino in Atlantic City, thinking he can call the shots and rig the tables. That’s not capitalism. That’s cronyism soaked in nationalism. That’s the state seizing power over what’s supposed to be a free market.

And remember that his casinos went bankrupt multiple times and he was able to walk away. That’s the sort of economic carnage this economic idiot is going to leave us with.

Then there’s the bailouts. Trump sent out many millions of dollars in “stimulus” checks during the COVID-19 pandemic. He presided over massive federal programs that doled out cash to businesses and individuals alike. Like politicians everywhere, he wasn’t one to allow an emergency to pass without making things even worse. The U.S. government went far more deeply into debt because of this. (And then Biden came along and continued the Trump policy of handing out money like candy to babies.)

Trump’s followers claim they love freedom. But Trump doesn’t hesitate to embrace the tools of central economic control that every Marxist government in history has dreamed of. Direct government payments. Government deciding who gets to survive and who doesn’t.

Under Trump, the federal government’s role in the economy ballooned. Spending exploded. Deficits grew. The Federal Reserve turned on the money printer like a Soviet factory worker trying to meet his quota. All in the name of “stimulus.” All in the name of helping the people. And yet those of us who believe in economic freedom, who believe in letting individuals make their own choices in a market unmolested by Washington power games — we were told to shut up and wave the flag.

If Barack Obama had done all this, Trump’s supporters would have screamed “Socialism!” until their lungs gave out. But because their strongman did it, they mostly smiled and called it leadership.

Do you remember when the Right used to at least pretend to care about limited government? Balanced budgets? Free markets? That’s all gone now, buried under red hats and chants about making things great again.

And what about Trump’s obsession with “bringing back” manufacturing jobs? The man talks like it’s 1950 and the future of the American dream lies in reopening steel mills. Instead of accepting the reality of a post-industrial economy where innovation and service industries dominate, he wants to rewind the clock. He talks about the American worker like he’s a cog in a machine, something to be plugged into a government-directed economic engine.

That’s Marxism. That’s not free enterprise. That’s not capitalism.

None of this is to say the Democrats are any better, of course. They’re just more honest about their love for socialism. But Trump? Trump is worse in some ways. He hijacked the rhetoric of liberty and used it to sell state control. He cloaked his collectivism in patriotism, so millions of people cheered for policies they would have rioted against if they came from the other party.

If Marx is watching from the afterlife — and if he has any sense of humor — he has to be laughing.

Because the Soviet Union never figured out how to destroy the American free market. But Donald Trump is doing it from the inside. He’s centralizing power. He’s deciding who wins and who loses. He’s using fear and populism to justify control.

And the people most likely to yell about “Marxists in Washington”? They’re the ones wearing his T-shirts and red hats.

When you put your faith in a man instead of in liberty, you will always be disappointed. The cult of personality is the gateway drug to tyranny.

Karl Marx never could have pulled this off. But Donald Trump might.

And he didn’t even have to read a single page of Marx’s terrible books.

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We are ruled by the dumbest and most incompetent people among us — and we have a system which allows stupid and irresponsible people to force the costs of their idiocy onto smarter and wiser people. Can we get away with that? Yes, for quite some time. But we eventually reach a point at which the dumbest of the dumb — who are habitual liars and mentally ill fools — lead us to the disasters and destruction that some of us have seen coming for years. We are approaching that point. And yet most of the idiots around us still wave their rhetorical banners of support for the evil people who are leading us to ruin — and all of them point their fingers at someone else, never noticing that their own enthusiastic support of evil is to blame. When things finally fall apart, blame yourself for your blindness to the evil, not whoever happens to be in power when it happens.

I’ve been making some changes to the site lately and there are more changes coming in the days ahead, so don’t be surprised if you some small differences. This is not a wholesale redesign, but rather the addition of some features. Since they’re smarter than I am, I’ve put Oliver and Alex in charge of the technical work, which you can see in this action photo from the control room of our media complex. I recently added a series of landing pages for readers who randomly discover the site from an Internet search. I’ve also changed the YouTube link at the top of the page to go to the new YouTube channel for video essays that reflect things I’ve already published here. (Here’s a little bit about both of the YouTube channels I’m working on.) In addition, I’m trying to move away from using Instagram, so I’m experimenting with photo plug-ins that will eventually allow me to host the pictures — cats, dogs, sunsets, whatever — that I often take. So don’t be surprised to see more changes. Thanks for your patience. Let’s hope Alex and Oliver know what they’re doing.

I have no use for the theocratic and repressive government of Iran. The people who run the country are cruel at best and evil at worst. The Iranian people deserve freedom. But I have no personal quarrel with anybody in Iran. While I’m not thrilled about a future Iranian government having nuclear weapons, I’m just as concerned about nukes in the hands of politicians in Israel, Pakistan, India, China and Russia. I’m not even thrilled with the U.S., Britain and France having them, either, because I don’t trust any politicians to be responsible with such terrible weapons. All I can say with certainty is that American taxpayers have no business attacking Iran, especially since we’re being forced to pay for this attack in order to benefit the politicians of Israel — and nobody else. If Middle Eastern countries want to fight among themselves, that’s none of my business. It’s not the business of the U.S. government, either. I have no quarrel with anybody in Iran — and having the government which claims to represent me launch an unprovoked attack against a sovereign country will only make all Americans less safe in the near future. This attack is poorly conceived and morally unjustified. Remember that when the Iranians launch attacks that we will then condemn as “terrorism.” What the U.S. is doing right now looks like terrorism to me. And let’s not forget that the attack is the latest in a long line of unconstitutional wars by various U.S. presidents — who have no legal power to declare war on their own, according to the U.S. Constitution.

A child having a tantrum understands only one thing: Did I get my way or not? He doesn’t understand the issues involved. He doesn’t understand the reasons that went into a decision. He doesn’t understand any of the things that mature and reasonable adults have to understand in order to live healthy lives. By his reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling to strike down his disastrous tariff scheme, Donald Trump shows himself to be — once more — a screaming child having a tantrum. Outside the world of mob bosses who expect to get their way every time, normal adults don’t act this way, but Trump isn’t normal. He’s an angry and vengeful man who has narcissistic personality disorder. And we are in danger as a result. Trump doesn’t understand the legal issues involved in this ruling. He doesn’t understand economics. He doesn’t understand rule of law. He doesn’t understand that he can ever be wrong. All he understands is that he didn’t get his way. And he is now a narcissistic and raging little boy who also happens to hold life-and-death power over most humans on this planet. He’s dangerous — and the system which gives him that power is even more dangerous.

Is it an attempt to blur the gender line between men and women? Or is it some weird tribute to the traditional Scottish kilt? It’s hard to say, but fashion designers keep pushing for men to wear skirts in the last few years. Both men and women in modern fashion seem oddly androgynous, as though it would be offensive for a man to look manly or for a woman to look feminine. A CNN article about the latest fashions from Paris caught my attention Monday and left me wondering about the ugly clothes the designers are hawking. If a man wants to wear a skirt — or a kilt — that’s OK with me, but I’ll stick with a traditional dark suit with a white shirt and tie. (Well, when I’m not wearing t-shirts and sweats, of course.) I always wonder who actually buys the outlandish garb from fashion designers anyway. I would be humiliated to be seen in any of this stuff, but I obviously have no sense of high fashion.

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