Who Rules America?
The Power Elite in the Time of Trump
This incisive article by Prof James Petras was first published by Global Research in September 2017
In the last
few months, several competing political, economic and military sectors –
linked to distinct ideological and ethnic groups – have clearly emerged
at the centers of power.
We can identify some of the key competing and interlocking directorates of the power elite:
1. Free marketers, with the ubiquitous presence of the ‘Israel First’ crowd.
2. National capitalists, linked to rightwing ideologues.
3. Generals, linked to the national security and the Pentagon apparatus, as well as defense industry.
4. Business elites, linked to global capital.
This essay attempts to define the power wielders and evaluate their range of power and its impact.
The Economic Power Elite: Israel-Firsters and Wall Street CEO’s
‘Israel Firsters’ dominate
the top economic and political positions within the Trump regime and,
interestingly, are among the Administration’s most vociferous opponents.
These include: the Federal Reserve Chairwoman, Janet Yellen, as well as her Vice-Chair, Stanley Fischer, an Israeli citizen and former (sic) Governor of the Bank of Israel.
Jared Kushner,
(image right) President Trump’s son-in-law and an Orthodox Jew, acts as
his top adviser on Middle East Affairs. Kushner, a New Jersey real
estate mogul, set himself up as the archenemy of the economic
nationalists in the Trump inner circle. He supports every Israeli power
and land grab in the Middle East and works closely with David Friedman, US Ambassador to Israel (and fanatical supporter of the illegal Jewish settlements) and Jason Greenblatt,
Special Representative for International negotiations. With three
Israel-Firsters determining Middle East policy, there is not even a fig
leaf of balance.
The Treasury Secretary is Steven Mnuchin,
a former Goldman Sachs executive, who leads the neo-liberal free market
wing of the Wall Street sector within the Trump regime. Gary Cohn,
a longtime Wall Street influential, heads the National Economic
Council. They form the core business advisers and lead the neo-liberal
anti-nationalist Trump coalition committed to undermining economic
nationalist policies.
An influential voice in the Attorney General’s office is Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Robert Mueller the chief investigator, which led to the removal of nationalists from the Trump Administration.
The fairy godfather of the anti-nationalist Mnuchin-Cohn team is Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sach’s Chairman. The ‘Three Israel First bankerteers’ are
spearheading the fight to deregulate the banking sector, which had
ravaged the economy, leading to the 2008 collapse and foreclosure of
millions of American homeowners and businesses.
The ‘Israel-First’ free
market elite is spread across the entire ruling political spectrum,
including ranking Democrats in Congress, led by Senate Minority leader Charles Schumer and the Democratic Head of the House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff.
The Democratic Party Israel Firsters have allied with their free market
brethren in pushing for investigations and mass media campaigns against
Trump’s economic nationalist supporters and their eventual purge from
the administration.
The Military Power Elite: The Generals
The military
power elite has successfully taken over from the elected president in
major decision-making. Where once the war powers rested with the
President and the Congress, today a collection of fanatical militarists
make and execute military policy, decide war zones and push for greater
militarization of domestic policing. Trump has turned crucial decisions
over to those he fondly calls ‘my Generals’ as he continues to dodge accusations of corruption and racism.
Trump appointed Four-Star General James ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis
(retired USMC) – a general who led the war in Afghanistan and Iraq – as
Secretary of Defense. Mattis (whose military ‘glories’ included bombing
a large wedding party in Iraq) is leading the campaign to escalate US
military intervention in Afghanistan – a war and occupation that Trump
had openly condemned during his campaign. As Defense Secretary, General
‘Mad Dog’ pushed the under-enthusiastic Trump to announce an increase in
US ground troops and air attacks throughout Afghanistan. True to his
much-publicized nom-de-guerre, the general is a rabid advocate for a nuclear attack against North Korea.
Lieutenant General H. R. McMaster
(an active duty Three Star General and long time proponent of expanding
the wars in the Middle East and Afghanistan) became National Security
Adviser after the purge of Trump’s ally Lt. General Michael Flynn, who opposed the campaign of confrontation and sanctions against Russia and China. McMaster has been instrumental in removing ‘nationalists’ from Trumps administration and joins General ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis in pushing for a greater build-up of US troops in Afghanistan.
Lt. General John Kelly
(Retired USMC), another Iraq war veteran and Middle East regime change
enthusiast, was appointed White House Chief of Staff after the ouster of
Reince Priebus.
The Administration’s Troika of three generals share with the neoliberal Israel First Senior Advisors to Trump, Stephen Miller and Jared Kushner, a deep hostility toward Iran and fully endorse Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s demand that the 2015 Nuclear Accord with Tehran be scrapped.
Trump’s military directorate guarantees that spending for overseas wars will not be affected by budget cuts, recessions or even national disasters.
The ‘Generals’, the Israel First free
marketers and the Democratic Party elite lead the fight against the
economic nationalists and have succeeded in ensuring that Obama Era
military and economic empire building would remain in place and even
expand.
The Economic Nationalist Elite
The leading strategist and ideologue of Trump’s economic nationalist allies in the White House was Steve Bannon.
He had been chief political architect and Trump adviser during the
electoral campaign. Bannon devised an election campaign favoring
domestic manufacturers and American workers against the
Wall Street and multinational corporate free marketers. He developed
Trump’s attack on the global trade agreements, which had led to the
export of capital and the devastation of US manufacturing labor.
Equally
significant, Bannon crafted Trumps early public opposition to the
generals’ 15-year trillion-dollar intervention in Afghanistan and the
even more costly series of wars in the Middle East favored by the Israel-Firsters, including the ongoing proxy-mercenary war to overthrow the secular nationalist government of Syria.
Within 8 month
of Trump’s administration, the combined forces of the free market
economic and military elite, the Democratic Party leaders, overt
militarists in the Republican Party and their allies in the mass media
succeeded in purging Bannon – and marginalized the mass support base for
his ‘America First’ economic nationalist and anti-‘regime change’
agenda.
The anti-Trump ‘alliance’ will now target the remaining few economic nationalists in the administration. These include: the CIA Director Mike Pompeo, (right) who favors protectionism by weakening the Asian and NAFTA trade agreements and Peter Navarro,
Chairman of the White House Trade Council. Pompeo and Navarro face
strong opposition from the ascendant neoliberal Zionist troika now
dominating the Trump regime.
In addition, there is Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross,
a billionaire and former director of Rothschild Inc., who allied with
Bannon in threatening import quotas to address the massive US trade
deficit with China and the European Union.
Another Bannon ally is US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer
a former military and intelligence analyst with ties to the newsletter
Breitbart. He is a strong opponent of the neoliberal, globalizers in and
out of the Trump regime.
‘Senior Adviser’ and Trump speechwriter, Stephen Miller actively promotes the travel ban on Muslims and stricter restrictions on immigration. Miller represents the Bannon wing of Trump’s zealously pro-Israel cohort.
Sebastian Gorka,
Trump’s Deputy Assistant in military and intelligence affairs, was more
an ideologue than analyst, who wrote for Breitbart and rode to office
on Bannon’s coat tails. Right after removing Bannon, the ‘Generals’ purged Gorka in early August on accusations of ‘anti-Semitism’.
Whoever remains
among Trump’s economic nationalists are significantly handicapped by the
loss of Steve Bannon who had provided leadership and direction.
However, most have social and economic backgrounds, which also link them
to the military power elite on some issues and with the pro-Israel free marketers on others. However, their core beliefs had been shaped and defined by Bannon.
The Business Power Elite
Exxon Mobile CEO Rex Tillerson, (left) Trump’s Secretary of State and former Texas Governor Rick Perry,
Energy Secretary lead the business elite. Meanwhile, the business elite
associated with US manufacturing and industry have little direct
influence on domestic or foreign policy. While they follow the Wall
Street free marketers on domestic policy, they are subordinated to the
military elite on foreign policy and are not allied with Steve Bannon’s
ideological core.
Trump’s business
elite, which has no link to the economic nationalists in the Trump
regime, provides a friendlier face to overseas economic allies and
adversaries.
Analysis and Conclusion
The power elite
cuts across party affiliations, branches of government and economic
strategies. It is not restricted to either political party, Republican
or Democratic. It includes free marketers, some economic nationalists,
Wall Street power brokers and militarists. All compete and fight for
power, wealth and dominance within this administration. The correlation
of forces is volatile, changing rapidly in short periods of time –
reflecting the lack of cohesion and coherence in the Trump regime.
Never has the US
power elite been subject to such monumental changes in composition and
direction during the first year of a new regime.
During the Obama
Presidency, Wall Street and the Pentagon comfortably shared power with
Silicon Valley billionaires and the mass media elite. They were united
in pursuing an imperial ‘globalist’ strategy, emphasizing multiple
theaters of war and multilateral free trade treaties, which was in the
process of reducing millions of American workers to permanent helotry.
With the
inauguration of President Trump, this power elite faced challenges and
the emergence of a new strategic configuration, which sought drastic
changes in US political economic and military policy.
The architect of
the Trump’s campaign and strategy, Steve Bannon, sought to displace the
global economic and military elite with his alliance of economic
nationalists, manufacturing workers and protectionist business elites.
Bannon pushed for a major break from Obama’s policy of multiple
permanent wars to expanding the domestic market. He proposed troop
withdrawal and the end of US military operations in Afghanistan, Syria
and Iraq, while increasing a combination of economic, political and
military pressure on China. He sought to end sanctions and confrontation
against Moscow and fashion economic ties between the giant energy
producers in the US and Russia.
While Bannon was
initially the chief strategist in the White House, he quickly found
himself faced with powerful rivals inside the regime, and ardent
opponents among Democratic and Republican globalists and especially from
the Zionist – neoliberals who systematically maneuvered to win
strategic economic and policy positions within the regime. Instead of
being a coherent platform from which to formulate a new radical economic
strategy, the Trump Administration was turned into a chaotic and
vicious ‘terrain for struggle’. The Bannon’s economic strategy barely got off the ground.
The mass media
and operatives within the state apparatus, linked to Obama’s permanent
war strategy, first attacked Trump’s proposed economic reconciliation
with Russia. To undermine any ‘de-escalation’, they fabricated the
Russian spy and election manipulation conspiracy. Their first successful
shots were fired at Lt. General Michael Flynn, Bannon’s ally and key
proponent for reversing the Obama/Clinton policy of military
confrontation with Russia. Flynn was quickly destroyed and openly
threatened with prosecution as a ‘Russian agent’ in whipped-up hysteria that resembled the heydays of Senator Joseph McCarthy.
Key economic posts in the Trump regime were split between the Israel-Firster neoliberals and the economic nationalists. The ‘Deal Maker’ President
Trump attempted to harness Wall Street-affiliated neoliberal Zionists
to the economic nationalists, linked to Trump’s working class electoral
base, in formulating new trade relations with the EU and China, which
would favor US manufacturers. Given the irreconcilable differences
between these forces, Trump’s naïve ‘deal’ weakened Bannon, undermined his leadership and wrecked his nationalist economic strategy.
While Bannon had
secured several important economic appointees, the Zionist neoliberals
undercut their authority. The Fischer-Mnuchin-Cohn cohort successfully
set a competing agenda.
The entire
Congressional elite from both parties united to paralyze the TrumpBannon
agenda. The giant corporate mass media served as a hysterical and
rumor-laden megaphone for zealous Congressional and FBI investigators
magnifying every nuance of Trump’s US Russia relations in search of
conspiracy. The combined state-Congressional and Media apparatus
overwhelmed the unorganized and unprepared mass base of Bannon electoral
coalition which had elected Trump.
Thoroughly
defeated, the toothless President Trump retreated in desperate search
for a new power configuration, turning his day-to-day operations over
to ‘his generals’. The elected civilian President of the United States embraced his generals’ pursuit
of a new military-globalist alliance and escalation of military threats
foremost against North Korea, but including Russia and China.
Afghanistan was immediately targeted for an expanded intervention.
Trump effectively replaced Bannon’s economic nationalist strategy with a revival Obama’s multi-war military approach.
The Trump regime
re-launched the US attacks on Afghanistan and Syria – exceeding Obama’s
use of drone attacks on suspected Muslim militants. He intensified
sanctions against Russia and Iran, embraced Saudi Arabia’s war against
the people of Yemen and turned the entire Middle East policy over to his
ultra-Zionist Political Advisor (Real Estate mogul and son-in-law)
Jared Kushner and US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman.
Trump’s retreat
turned into a grotesque rout. The Generals embraced the neoliberal
Zionists in Treasury and the Congressional global militarists.
Communication Directory Anthony Scaramucci was fired. Trump’s Chief of
Staff General Joe Kelly purged Steve Bannon. Sebastian Gorka was kicked
out.
The eight months
of internal struggle between the economic nationalists and the
neoliberals has ended: The Zionist-globalist alliance with Trump’s Generals now dominate the Power Elite.
Trump is
desperate to adapt to the new configuration, allied to his own
Congressional adversaries and the rabidly anti-Trump mass media.
Having all but
decimated Trump’s economic nationalists and their program, the Power
Elite then mounted a series of media-magnified events centering around a
local punch-out in Charlottesville, Virginia between ‘white
supremacists’ and ‘anti-fascists’. After the confrontation led to death
and injury, the media used Trump’s inept attempt to blame both ‘baseball
bat’-wielding sides, as proof of the President’s links to neo-Nazis and
the KKK. Neoliberal and Zionists, within the Trump administration and
his business councils, all joined in the attack on the President,
denouncing his failure to immediately and unilaterally blame rightwing
extremists for the mayhem.
Trump is turning
to sectors of the business and Congressional elite in a desperate
attempt to hold onto waning support via promises to enact massive tax
cuts and deregulate the entire private sector.
The decisive issue was no longer over one policy or another or even strategy.
Trump had already lost on all accounts. The ‘final solution’ to
the problem of the election of Donald Trump is moving foreword
step-by-step – his impeachment and possible arrest by any and all means.
What the rise and destruction of economic nationalism in the ‘person’ of Donald Trump tells us is that the American political system cannot tolerate any capitalist reforms that might threaten the imperial globalist power elite.
Writers and
activists used to think that only democratically elected socialist
regimes would be the target of systematic coup d’état. Today the
political boundaries are far more restrictive. To call for ‘economic nationalism’, completely
within the capitalist system, and seek reciprocal trade agreements is
to invite savage political attacks, trumped up conspiracies and internal
military take-overs ending in ‘regime change’.
The
global-militarist elite purge of economic nationalists and
anti-militarists was supported by the entire US left with a few notable
exceptions. For the first time in history the left became an
organizational weapon of the pro-war, pro-Wall Street, pro-Zionist Right
in the campaign to oust President Trump. Local movements and leaders,
notwithstanding, trade union functionaries, civil rights and immigration
politicians, liberals and social democrats have joined in the fight for
restoring the worst of all worlds: the Clinton-Bush-Obama/Clinton
policy of permanent multiple wars, escalating confrontations with
Russia, China, Iran and Venezuela and Trump’s deregulation of the US
economy and massive tax-cuts for big business.
We have gone a
long-way backwards: from elections to purges and from peace agreements
to police state investigations. Today’s economic nationalists are
labeled‘fascists’; and displaced workers are ‘the deplorables’!
Americans have a lot to learn and unlearn.
Our strategic advantage may reside in the fact that political life in
the United States cannot get worse – we really have touched bottom and
(barring a nuclear war) we can only look up.
Prof James Petras is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG)
Featured image is from The Unz Review.
The original source of this article is The Official James Petras Website
Copyright © Prof. James Petras, The Official James Petras Website, 2018
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