Gangster-in-Chief Donald Trump’s tariff shakedown  is a marker of U.S. imperialism in decline. With capitalism mired in global crisis and China’s power rising, the shift toward fascism in the U.S. is accelerating. Rival gangs of U.S. bosses are at each other’s throats as they scramble to deliver shrinking profits to their billionaire patrons. Within  the U.S., the rulers lean on racist scapegoating and armed-to-the-teeth KKKops to crush dissent. At the same time, they’re igniting proxy wars to prop up U.S. dominance and push the world closer to World War Three.

Neither faction of the U.S. ruling class—the Big Fascists of finance capital nor the isolationist Small Fascists—have a solution for the contradictions of capitalism. For the international working class, the only solution is to build and organize toward communist revolution– on the job and in communities, in schools and hospitals and the bosses’ militaries. We must smash the capitalist state and replace it with a society run by and for the working class.

U.S. caught in a web of its own making

The U.S. emerged from World War II as the world’s biggest imperialist power.  Finance capital–the big oil companies and the multinational banks that finance them– built this imperialist system. They will slaughter millions of workers to try to save it. 
Seventy five years later, the finance capitalists admit that their old liberal world order  has been “diseased” by the rigidity of liberal values (Foreign Affairs, 7/28). To counter rising imperialist China, the Big Fascists must destroy their own rules-based system and the multilateral deals it promoted. Jim Crow Joe Biden paved the way for Trump by bypassing the UN and the World Trade Organization (WTO) whenever they stood in the way, most brazenly in expanding sanctions on Iran and Russia.

Trump’s tariff crusade stems from the same crisis. Decades of falling profits have made trade a matter of “national security.” Tariffs—a tax on imports that mostly gets passed on to workers–mean higher costs and weaker wages. The Small Fascists represented by Trump are lining up behind “Fortress America,” a protectionist drive to shield domestic industries, including domestic oil. They’re also reluctant to  fund and defend the U.S. empire with expensive ground troops. In sum, high tariffs sharpen inter-imperialist rivalry, force workers to pay more, and expose fractures in the U.S. ruling class.

Deals vs. sacrifice

The dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency is a tentpole of U.S. global power. Because most global trade, investment, and debt are in dollars, Washington can print as much money as it chooses to finance deficits, force other countries to hold dollar reserves, and weaponize the financial system with sanctions. Since World War II, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the WTO have rigged its “rules-based” governance to maintain dollar supremacy. To maintain  access to the global financial system,  other countries are forced to comply with Washington’s agenda. The liberal Big Fascists defend multilateralism because it cloaks U.S. domination in the guise of cooperation.

The bosses fronted by Trump want a different coercive model. Trump’s tariff strategy links trade and currency policy to military leverage. Targeting China’s dollar reserves while punishing allies like the European Union, India, and Canada (New York Times, 4/7), Trump’s trade chief Jamieson Greer openly calls for bilateral deals to force open foreign markets and extract “strategic sector” investments (NYT, 8/7).

Trump’s volatility on tariffs is pushing the EU and others to build trade systems less dependent on a “fickle United States” (NYT, 7/13), creating openings for Russia and China to advance alternative world orders. Central banks are diversifying reserves, boosting gold, and experimenting with non-dollar currencies (JPMorgan, 7/1). As its manufacturing sector has hollowed out, U.S. dominance has slowly eroded. For workers, however, it matters little whether the Big Fascists defend dollar supremacy or the Small Fascists weaken it.  The result is the same: higher prices, job insecurity, and intensified exploitation. 

In the U.S., the Small Fascists’ trade offensive is paralleled by a campaign of gutter anti-immigrant racism: ICE raids, mass deportations, border militarization. Trump is targeting workers who’ve been displaced by U.S.-driven wars, climate disasters, and predatory trade policies. This mix of external economic coercion and internal repression defines the “Fortress America” project: global confrontation abroad and domestic control at home in service of U.S. imperial power in a world edging toward war.

Trump’s war on data

Economic fragility (see box) is playing out in the U.S. jobs market. After a weak July jobs report, Trump fired Bureau of Labor Statistics head Erika McEntarfer after accusing her, with no evidence, of fudging the numbers. From public health to climate to the economy, Trump’s wholesale assault on data science is designed to prop up illusions of endless growth and prosperity (Financial Times, 8/6).

When Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell refused to cut interest rates on command, Trump floated a plan to install a “shadow chair,” a loyalist who would surrender central bank independence and tighten Trump’s control over monetary policy. It would be a desperate move to buy time against the falling rate of profit (FT, 7/10). 

As U.S. manufacturing continues to slump and more than half of industries are already shedding workers (fortune.com, 8/10),  “facts” are becoming optional–another hallmark of rising fascism.

Only solution: communist revolution

While they have different strategies for war and austerity, the two factions of U.S. bosses agree on one thing: Workers will foot the bill for capitalist decline. The profit system always finds money for ICE, war, and genocide, but never for housing, healthcare, or schools. But by organizing within the chaos, waste, and exploitation created by capitalism, we can turn its crises into the basis for our power. 

Under communism,  unchained from the brutal rule of the market and the drive for profit, resources will go where they are most needed: to rebuild infrastructure, expand public health systems, decarbonize energy, and ensure that every person has access to decent housing, education, and meaningful work. 

We must reject the deadly illusion that capitalism can be managed rationally or humanely. Our class needs a communist horizon: a system organized for the needs of the many, not profits for the few. Join Progressive Labor Party and fight for a world without bosses or borders!

The political economy of decline

Capitalism faces deep structural decline. The trends destabilizing the profit system include:

Financialization: In 2023–2024, over half of S&P 500 gains came from seven tech monopolies while core industrial profits fell (FT; The Atlantic, 8/6).

Job Growth Stagnation: Gains are concentrated in low-profit sectors like eldercare and healthcare.

Investment Decline: Speculation in AI data centers surges as industrial investment lags (Bloomberg, 7/31).

Inflation: Service prices rise as growth slows; the June ISM Services Index hit 50.1, signaling stagflation risk (ISM Report, June).

Climate Costs: Extreme weather has cost $2.86 trillion since 2000; annual losses could exceed $3 trillion by 2050 (WEF, 10/12/23).