Trump takes office, goes full MAGA

This is getting ugly quickly. Trump wasted no time proving that he can learn from experience, and what he’s learned is not to rely on the traditional old-line conservatives.

At the celebratory luncheon – more like a MAGA rally – after the inauguration, Elon Musk pranced and danced around on the stage and then gave the sieg heil Nazi salute not once but twice as he turned around and gave the same salute to the crowd behind him. Videos of his performance show that he didn’t simply mean to wave at the crowd. This was a conscious Nazi salute. As Musk gave his salute the crowd bayed for blood.

Trump signed a series of executive orders. He

• Released almost all the violent fascist prisoners convicted for their role on Jan. 6. This included Enrique Tarrio, leader of the Proud Boys, and Stewart Rhodes, leader of the Oath Keepers. Look for Musk to provide millions of dollars funding for their groups and for the New Apostolic Reformation/Dominionists to provide an ideological base in the view that their interpretation of the bible must be the law of the land. See this Oaklandsocialist article for more on this issue.
• Declared a state of emergency on the Southern border and gave the U.S. military explicit responsibility for immigration enforcement. This is a first step towards militarization of law enforcement in general.
• Called for “drill, baby, drill” (for oil), meaning two things: Further rape of the environment, especially national parks, and acceleration of global climate change/disruption.
• Outlawed same sex facilities. Presumably this will include single sex bathrooms.
• Ordered all federal workers to return to working from office rather than from home, thereby putting many under severe health risk.
• Signed an executive order nullifying birthright citizenship, thereby declaring he has the power to override the U.S. Constitution.
• Reversed the federal law banning Tik Tok. Regardless of what one thinks of the ban, Trump’s action means that he takes it upon himself to overtly reverse any law passed by congress and signed by a previous president.

Tech industry
The tech industry is now nearly solidly lined up behind Trump. A column in the Wall St. Journal explains it:

“While the tech industry’s staunch defense of the H-1B visa program enrages some populists, the tech industry is far less dependent on low-wage immigrant labor than many other economic sectors. Overall, a compromise in which Mr. Trump’s tech allies support caps on unskilled immigration and tight border controls while keeping the door open for migrants with the skills tech needs seems within reach…. The MAGA-populist/tech-lord coalition is a volatile one, and keeping it together will be taxing. It is too early to tell how successful the second Trump administration will be…. In aligning U.S. policy with the needs of the most dynamic, future-facing elements in the economy, the MAGA movement and its newfound technology allies may be more consequential than many critics understand.”

Democrats
The Democrats have covered themselves with shame… once again. Biden & Co. happily escorted serial criminal and fascist aligned Trump into office and New Jersey senator Corey Booker bragged about the “peaceful transition” on CNN. They gave not a hint of seriously organizing against what is to come.

Union leadership
Sean Fain is the reform president of the United Auto Workers (UAW). He is widely seen, including among some “socialists”, as the great hope for the labor movement. The day before Trump took office, Fain had a column published in the Washington Post. The column was entitled “I’m president of the UAW. We’re ready to work with Trump.” Fain did concede that “We do not agree with Trump on much of his domestic agenda…” Do not agree!? Fain then went on to support tariffs, which will accelerate inflation and are a step towards actual war. He concluded “The UAW stands ready to support any politician or administration [meaning Trump] that takes on corporate greed to do exactly that.” Fain the union leader actually implies that Trump, the greatest and greediest grifter of all time, the politician directly linked to the world’s richest capitalist (Musk), might be willing to do that! In fact, it will be the exact opposite.

Socialist opposition to Trump?
The socialist movement, tiny as it is, could have pointed to a way forward. Instead, the overwhelming majority of socialists have also covered themselves with shame. Or they would have if they had any. They spent the entire election denouncing the Democrats with hardly a word of warning against Trump. They hid behind the issue of Gaza, but the fact is that they took this same position four years earlier. They think it’s a principle never to vote for a Democrat, not even when the alternative is a fascist-connected candidate. These “socialists” did absolutely nothing to organize against MAGA. The most prominent “socialist”, former Seattle city council member Kshama Sawant, actually called for the election of Trump when she called for “punishing the Democrats”, and almost none of the other socialists denounced her for that. Only now, after he is in office, do these hypocrites denounce Trump!

Others, an even smaller minority, made the ridiculous claim that the voting machines were hacked and that Trump’s taking power is a “Russian coup”. (Oaklandsocialist has thoroughly demolished this claim in this article.) This even tinier minority of socialists and anarchists (and some liberals) thereby in effect deny the widespread support Trump and MAGA have within the U.S. working class – a denial that many socialists had engaged in previously.

Conclusion
We have to be clear: The election of Trump is a major defeat for the world working class and for oppressed people the world over. Already, for instance, Trump has reversed the sanctions against Israeli settlers in the West Bank, weak as those sanctions might have been. Trump’s alter-ego, Elon Musk, is now supporting the German MAGA equivalent, Alternative for Germany (AfD). Trump’s call to dominate the entire Atlantic, from Greenland to Canada and down to the Panama Canal, represents a new and even worse Pax Americana.

How, through what channels, can a working class opposition to Trump develop and what role can working class oriented socialists play in such an opposition? That is the question of the hour.

Update – Oaklandsocialist just got this report: A worker was goofing around with a fellow worker, mimicking Elon Musk’s Nazi salute. He was trying to do it while nobody else was around, but at one point a passerby came around the corner. This person was Jewish, wearing a yarmulka. The other worker apologized profusely, explaining that his friend didn’t really mean it, that he was just making fun of Musk. The Jewish passerby replied, “I don’t care if it was a Nazi salute or not. Elon Musk supports Israel and Donald Trump is the greatest friend of Israel. They can do whatever they like.”