Monday, January 20, 2025
The Presidency of Donald Trump
Trump Represents the Person of State
Assigned
to Break Constitutional Barriers
to Acting with Impunity
People's March in Washington DC against
Trump presidency, January 18, 2025
Obscene $250 Million Inauguration
The Inauguration of Donald Trump on January 20 is said to have raised $250 million in donations from corporations and billionaires seeking favour from the incoming U.S. administration of Donald Trump. It is an unprecedented obscene conflict of interest by a long shot -- the last was $150 million for the inauguration of Trump's first presidency -- and there are no rules to render account for where that money goes. It typifies not only the particular kind of person Donald Trump is but the person of state the ruling oligarchs and oligopolies have chosen to take over the U.S. presidency itself.
This is the person of state assigned to break constitutional barriers to acting with impunity. This is precisely the aspect that ruling elites in Canada do not want to discuss because they are vying to do the very same thing -- break constitutional barriers with impunity. For Trump this is likely to include use of executive orders to dictate actions at the borders and against immigrants and refugees; targeting state and local laws and officials, like California and Illinois, for sanctuary cities and states; seizing the purse strings to utilize the federal budget for his purposes and reclassifying federal workers as "political appointees" or gig workers. He is expected to issue dozens of executive orders on taking office, openly brandishing his police powers.
Many people are at a loss when it comes to understanding what is going on right now. Many, not only in the U.S. but also Canada and other countries, are in a state of apprehension and trauma. They find the election of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States an extremely distressing and disturbing experience. There appears to be no way to discuss that such a thing as Donald Trump in control of the U.S. presidency can happen. Like the genocide in Gaza, it appears to be completely out of anyone's control. This, however, is something the resistance forces have settled. By forcing Israel to sign the ceasefire, it has now suffered an irreversible defeat. In like manner the working class and people in the U.S., Canada and other countries are fighting for what is right in the face of the impunity of state attacks against them.
An authority only prevails so long as whatever it establishes is followed. If it is not followed, it loses its power; its stranglehold comes loose. Unfortunately, in the name of high ideals, the current Liberal government in Canada along with provincial premiers are giving the arbitrary rule of Donald Trump as much credence as they can muster by responding to his threats without a plan of their own which favours Canada. They are also grovelling to obtain Trump's favour and "win over" the unqualified people he wants to put into cabinet posts, as well as of U.S. Senators and Congress people.
Canadians have come to expect this grovelling behaviour -- and despise it. The kind of unqualified people they will be hobnobbing with in hopes of currying their favour are not fit for office. They are not worthy of recognition.
For its part, the media, both legacy and social, are gushing over the glitz and glamour of the inauguration "festivities," who is invited and who is not, who is sponsoring them, and so on. The demands of the people of the United States are for the most part markedly absent in media coverage dominated by gossips, scandals and disinformation about what it all represents. All of it reduces the level of political discourse to zero.
An absurd claim is made that by negotiating with Trump Canadians will show they stand by the basic raison d'être of democratic institutions which includes free and fair elections which guarantee a peaceful transition of power. Unlike Trump when he lost the election in 2020 to Biden and organized the January 6, 2021 insurrection, the mainstay of our democratic system must prevail no matter what.
The absurdity of their claim seems to escape them altogether. How can one talk about a peaceful transition of power when the Trump presidency and U.S. democracy itself represent endless war, destruction, a war economy and gross social inequality? Trump's threats, bullying and deal-making at home and abroad are anything but peaceful. His plans for greater use of the military inside and outside of the country are further evidence of this.
Welcoming a peaceful transition of power in the United States in 2025 is wilful blindness and disinformation. For those who do so, constitutional principles don't matter. Their explanation for collaborating in Trump's rule, because this is what it means to uphold the democratic principle of a peaceful transition of power, is to declare that any rich person can mobilize their wealth and power to achieve their aim and there will be no adverse consequences, no matter what principle is violated. Democratic values mean nothing to these scoundrels.
Those who have supported and participated in the U.S./Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people for more than 15 months do so saying they represent democratic values. So too concerning their support for the neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine, warmongering in the Asia-Pacific, the U.S./NATO takeover of the Arctic, interference in the affairs of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, and much more.
Those who prorogued Parliament while they rule by ministerial decree for the next three months are, in essence, also testing the constitutional limitations on the credible use of their prerogative police powers. These powers are, by definition, above the rule of law, exercised with impunity. They are holding a leadership race in which the person who qualifies to be chosen as Canada's next Prime Minister has to pay $350,000, to prove their "worth." This shows that they are qualitatively no different to the regime down south where billionaires have usurped the state power. Yet such people speak of the superiority of their democratic institutions and pass laws to silence those forces within the polity who do not succumb to their rule.
There is nothing peaceful about states which get away with acting with impunity, support genocide, coups d'état, targeted assassinations, illegal sanctions, foreign interference and much more when it suits their purposes. In the case of Donald Trump, he suits the purposes of the U.S.-dominated section of the international financial oligarchy. Their narrow private corporate interests and oligopolies have usurped the powers of the U.S. state to show the world that Trump is the King of Kings to whom everyone must pay tribute and obey. This is true inside the country as well, where the civil war raging among the ruling factions remains and is likely to become more violent, especially against the people.
This is the essence of the Trump presidency. In the face of the
partnerships being formed by the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia,
India, China and South Africa) that are out of the control of the U.S.
state, and looming economic crisis at home, Trump is going in all
directions at once to show the world, through brute force if required,
that the U.S. is the "indispensable nation." The U.S. has decreed that
absolutely nothing can take place without its permission; no problems
can be resolved unless it dictates the outcome, and no crime is too
great if it serves its aim to rule the world.
The Canadian
ruling class and contenders for the leadership of the Liberal Party in
this country do not disagree with that which is why they cannot stand
up to Trump.
But the working class and peoples of the world do not kowtow to such
forces which are trying to escape the verdict of history. The future
depends on the fight of the peoples of the world for the rights of all,
not on those who act with impunity. Through their deeds the resistance
forces are working out how to settle scores with ruling elites in the
U.S., Britain, Canada and other countries who think they can get away
with impunity. The resistance of those forces fighting for peace,
freedom and democracy informs the peoples of the world what is at stake
and how to deal with it.
How to deal with a world
that has given rise to such a person of state as Trump is precisely the
order of the day, which the ruling elite in Canada, the U.S., Britain
and other countries refuse to discuss and deal with in a coherent
manner. They refuse to inform the peoples of even their own countries
of what is at stake and how they should approach the situation. They
strive instead to deprive the peoples of having their own outlook on
the basis of which they could establish their own agenda and pursue it
with enthusiasm for the new.
People's March, Washington, DC, January 18, 2025
On the Significance of Dismissing Trump's Trash Talk as a Distraction
On a U.S. news show, Prime Minister Trudeau dismissed Trump's constant references to making Canada the 51st U.S. state and to himself as the governor of the 51st state saying this is a distraction. Instead of analyzing such attempts to humiliate fellow government leaders and heads of state around the world to show who is the "real ruler" of the world, Trump's trash talk has now been called a "weapon of mass distraction."
As in any sport when facing a player who uses trash talk to get you off your game, you have to focus on your game, on your strategy and tactics. These begin with the aim your team has established for itself without which any reaction will merely play into the hands of the opposing team intent on winning no matter what the cost.
After saying that Trump's trash talk is a distraction, Trudeau said what is important is how to handle his threat of tariffs by getting him to negotiate. He called Trump a "brilliant negotiator."
This is mafia talk. How can a convicted felon be called a "brilliant negotiator"? Trump is known to enrich himself by being a swindler. His business deals are seen to be secured through bribery and by circumventing the laws of every jurisdiction. His promotion of the despicable methods of slum landlords, traffickers of women for the pleasure of the likes of himself and his fellow degenerates are widely despised. His lack of culture of any kind in any field, abhorrent racism and ignorance of world geography and history are just fine with the billionaires and spineless leaders who want him precisely because he breaks constitutional boundaries to acting with impunity. Those with amassed personal fortunes admire him greatly for doing the same while those who conciliate with him wish he could do everything with greater finesse! To suggest that we need to elect a keen negotiator to outwit him brings whoever thinks this way no honour whatsoever.
Far from dismissing Trump's trash talk, his modus operandi goes to the essence of the personality of the U.S. state today. With or without the trash talk, had Kamala Harris been elected, her task would have been no different, as was also the case for Biden, Obama and the Clintons who came before him, each within their time and space.
The personality of the person of state is not just a problem for the working class and people of the U.S. but for the working class and people of Canada, Britain and all the countries modelled on the European nation state. It is not a distraction which can be dismissed.
If the issue is that Trump's trash talk is a mass distraction to get what he wants, should Canadian leaders and pundits not explain that under their watch, in the name of free trade, they espoused the path of integration into the U.S. war machine to, amongst other things, "avoid tariffs" and that neither the economy nor state are independent of the United States in any way, shape or form?
How to Exercise Our Sovereignty Also a Matter of Serious Concern
Former
Prime Minister Jean Chrétien spoke recently to say that in
response to Trump's threats to impose tariffs on Canada, the government
must defend Canadian sovereignty. Chretien seems convinced that this
sounds good. It makes sense to him. Lest we forget, this is the man
whose definition of sovereignty sold out Canada lock, stock and
barrel during his so-called Team Canada trips in the early nineties. So
long as we take the decision to sell out such as through the Free Trade
Agreement with the U.S., then the decision we take to sell out the
country is proof that we are sovereign. Chretien even said as much
during his time as Prime Minister.
Chretien specifically mentioned that the Northwest Passage is ours and that is that. Interestingly, he spoke after Foreign Minister Joly announced on behalf of Canada that henceforth the Canadian Arctic would be known as the North American Arctic. Chretien had nothing to say about that! Perhaps she is the one to be commended for giving Trump the idea to name the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America!
What constitutes sovereignty today is reduced to a phrase which blithely rolls off the tongues of establishment forces who are not held to account. Such repetition of phrases dismisses serious discussion on what precisely constitutes sovereignty in today's conditions.
The fact that Canada is now caught up in the civil war raging between U.S. factions dominated by this or that oligopoly, and sometimes several at once, is important to note. It focuses attention on the need to change the direction of the economy, reform the electoral system which brings cartel party governments to power which act with impunity, and provide ourselves with a modern constitution which vests sovereignty in the people of this country, not in a fictitious person of state called the King of England, let alone the U.S. presidency.
Canadians
will never respect those who jump through hoops to curry favour with
Trump or the oligarchs so that they bestow mercy upon them. This
federal government, along with provincial governments of the same ilk,
refuse to negotiate with the workers of this country. Nowadays,
negotiations have given way to decreed outcomes, imposition of what
suits the narrow private interests of corporations and those who have
usurped the state powers. We see manipulation of laws and regulations
and passing of even more to achieve the result the ruling elite
demand. We see the workers and those who protest genocide, the
Indigenous Peoples, youth, women, the homeless, criminalized. We
see the ruling elite resorting to defamation, slander and lies to have
their way. The only thing which holds the rulers and narrow
self-serving corporate interests in check is the resistance struggles
of the workers and people on the basis of their profound experience
that their security does not lie in expecting mercy from the gods of
plague but in their fight for the rights of all.
Canada's security lies in the fight of the Canadian working class and people for the rights of all, not in kowtowing to the likes of Donald Trump. In the face of U.S. threats, the spirit of the workers has always been and is today: Bring it on Donald! We'll show you what Canadians are made of! We stand as one with the workers across the U.S., we stand as one with all those who defend justice and fight for what is right. We'll give you and those who appease you in Canada a run for your and their money! Watch us!
This is what working people are doing when it comes to the unremitting genocide of the heroic Palestinian people. This is what the working people are doing when it comes to staking their own claims on society. It is resistance to oppression, exploitation, sellout and infamy, not the "negotiating skills" of Donald Trump, which gives rise to results which favour the people.
But ruling elites are living in their own dreamworld and they say they can negotiate with the likes of Donald Trump. If they do not have their own game plan which can only be based on having the guts to change the direction of the economy to one which benefits the people of this country and, on the basis of mutual benefit, engage in trade with other countries, then what are Canada's resources worth? They are already given away for less than a song. And that's the point.
That is the existential question facing Canada, not Trump's "brilliant" negotiating tactics and electing a "good negotiator." At $350,000 a pop, no less. To say otherwise is not a mere "distraction." It is disinformation of the first order to deprive the workers and people of this country of their own line of march.
(To access articles individually click on the black headline.)
Website: www.cpcml.ca • Email: editor@cpcml.ca