Notes On Now

An Absent Establishment

What the hell is Trump up to? Columbia professor and historian Adam Tooze recently followed a long post assessing the President’s economic policy with a second saying that, perhaps, there is no rationality at all. Have all of us who believe in reason, he asked, become victims of a Stockholm Syndrome? As hostages to the folly of Washington, we need to believe our captor has a coherent strategy.

Even if he doesn’t, and Trump is simply taking revenge on the America that patronised and mocked him, we must reflect on the motives of those who carry his presidency onwards. Central to this is the ethno-religious supremacism of his backers such as PayPal billionaire Peter Thiel, sponsor of Vice President JD Vance, and the millenarian racism of evangelicals.

This doesn’t explain Trump’s tariffs. But it does, perhaps, help to explain their reckless implementation. His presidency is not just the revenge of the stupid – it also seeks to secure the domination of white men who know they are a minority. As they observe the republic of laws and democracy, and the rule of reason and human rights, ensure they become marginal, they are determined to prevent this.

But how can they get away with it? How is it possible for Trump to take a wrecking ball to America’s place in the world and the domestic institutions that upheld it? Where is the ‘deep state’ when we really need it?!