The bulk of this article was written before the spectacular breakup of the Trump/Musk bromance. That breakup is partly a product of two narcissistic megalomaniacs clashing. Musk’s opposition to the “Big Beautiful Bill” is also probably due to the fact that that bill ends tax breaks for electric vehicles. But it also shows the deeper issue: Wide layers of the U.S. capitalist class are horrified at the extreme recklessness of the Trump administration. The Big Beautiful Bill is only one example of this and it is inconceivable that Musk is not responding to the views of widening layers of his class. 

The capitalists thought they could at least partially control Trump’s call for tariffs.

The capitalist class is starting to experience buyers’ remorse regarding Trump. That includes those elements that formerly supported him. Born out of supreme arrogance, they had thought they could control him, but they are now finding out that they cannot. You can see that disillusionment in what is happening in the military, what is developing amongst many agents in the FBI, and what is happening in the judiciary and also among some the top corporate law firms and their clients. But it is also clear that they will not move against him in any decisive fashion without a real movement from below. 

Most of the capitalist class was always skeptical of Trump. That’s because they have no need whatsoever to overturn capitalist democracy. They had all the tensions inherent in US capitalism well under control. That includes tensions stemming from white supremacy, tensions over sexism, and over homophobia. Most important of all, they had (and have) the working class and its organizations – the unions – well under control. None of this was complete control, but at least to the extent that it didn’t present major obstacles to the smooth functioning of US capitalism. That is why the great majority of them did not support Trump in 2016.

First Trump administration
Despite that, he won in 2016. The capitalists were able to restrain Trump during his first administration. In 2018, a high level member of the Trump administration  anonymously published an article entitled I am Part of the resistance inside the Trump administration. 

He wrote: “I work for the president, but like-minded colleagues and I have vowed to thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations. The dilemma — which he does not fully grasp — is that many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations. I would know. I am one of them.” 

As Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley was the military-industrial complex personified. He helped put the brakes on Trump’s wilder ambitions. Now, military tops like him are gone.

It wasn’t only these anonymous appointees. Trump’s top military officers, including General Mark Milley, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made clear that they would disobey any order to bring the troops out onto the streets in order to enforce martial law. Even Trump’s consummate loyalist, Attorney General Bill Barr, refused to go along with overturning the 2020 election results. And when Trump tried to overturn the election on January 6, many top Republican politicians expressed deep opposition.

Trump learned from that experience. He spent the next four years consolidating his grip on his party, which has become little more than a giant cult. As the 2024 election approached, his top strategists put together a plan for a new Trump presidency – Project 2025. Trump made sure that anybody who would be considered for his new administration would be absolutely loyal to him, personally, rather than to the Constitution and the capitalist class overall. All applicants for a job had to answer one simple question: “Do you believe the 2020 election was stolen?” It didn’t matter what they actually believed. Simply saying the election was stolen was a declaration of absolute loyalty to Trump personally.

Also, as discussed here in Trump for foreigners,  and here in the the article Trump/Musk/Vance triumvirate and the Silicon Valley venture capitalists now in charge, increasing wings of the US capitalist class swung behind Trump. They were led by the Silicon Valley venture capitalists, but increasing sectors of finance capital also moved into his corner. NY Times columnist Michelle Goldberg explained that they were angry at Biden for his (minimal) steps in controlling racism, sexism and homophobia. Even more so, they were angry at his concessions to the US working class. Goldberg quotes hedge fund manager Bill Ackman regarding the new Trump administration: “We’re stepping into the most pro-growth, pro-business, pro-American administration I’ve perhaps seen in my adult lifetime.” In other words, they expected even greater profits than Ackman had seen in his lifetime.

The U.S. capitalist class’s extreme arrogance stems in large part from the fact that they haven’t faced a serious challenge in decades.

Either they weren’t paying attention, or their supreme arrogance led them to believe they could control Trump. or both. As Goldman puts it: “most of the people who make a living off their financial acumen [i.e. finance capitalists] had less understanding of Trump’s priorities than a casual viewer of MSNBC.” She was specifically referring to Trump’s tariff plans. The finance capitalists didn’t take Trump’s rhetoric seriously. They thought they could control him in that regard. She explains further:

“Some investors also felt a cultural affinity with the new administration that further clouded their judgment….

“In October, when Scott Bessent, soon to become Treasury secretary, said that Trump was really a free trader who used tariffs as a negotiating tactic, Wall Street was eager to believe him….

“During his first term, the so-called adults in the room thwarted some of Trump’s most destructive whims. There have been far fewer such figures in the Trump sequel, resulting in the wholesale degradation of American governance. The conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer just directed a purge of the National Security Council. Thanks to Elon Musk’s haphazard cuts, employees who once worked to prevent the spread of diseases like Ebola are gone, as are nuclear safety experts. There’s no one in the executive branch willing to publicly push back on Trump’s threats to take over Canada. Somehow, traders failed to recognize that there would eventually be economic fallout from such profound misrule.” Surprise! It turned out that Trump was serious about tariffs.

Then there is the issue of Trump trying to control the legal system, including the top corporate law firms such as the Paul Weiss firm. The Wall St. Journal reports that nine such firms have capitulated to Trump, but others have not. “The agreements were supposed to buy peace and allow the firms to move on, but in the weeks since they have caused rifts between partners, alienated some younger associates and created problems with some longtime clients,” the WSJ wrote. Several major corporate clients have lost trust in those firms and are ending their relationship with them. Others have not. They figure that the friendly relations with Trump that those firms have will benefit their clients. Within the court system, Trump has consistently lost his cases. And even Trump loyalist John Roberts, chief (in)Justice of the Supreme Court had to lecture Trump about the independence of the court system.

Ukraine
Trump’s willingness to concede Ukraine to Putin also bothers them. As the Wall Street Journal editors and many others correctly explain, Putin won’t stop here. He has proven that over and over. In fact, according to the Financial Times, Dorin Recean, President of Moldova, reported on June 3 that Putin is preparing to station 10,000 Russian troops in the Russian-controlled Moldovan enclave of Transnistria. This would lead to complete Russian control over that entire country. US and Western European capitalists do not want to see Trump give away a potentially rich outlet for investment, which is Ukraine. They also understand that Putin will continue to expand from there, given the opportunity. Of course, the democratic rights of the Ukrainian people don’t matter to them, but it should to all socialists and workers around the world.

Israel/Palestine
Capitalists are also seriously uneasy about Israel’s genocidal slaughter of the people of Gaza and its increasingly open ethnic cleansing of the West Bank. Even CNN is publicizing Israel’s war crimes more than they used to (although totally insufficiently). The capitalists recognize the political disruption this causes. Trump, however, is concerned with one thing: The fact that Israel’s unrelenting slaughter of the people of Gaza threatens to make impossible his plans for developing a “Gaza Riviera”. Also, if he openly defends the war crimes, that makes more difficult his real estate development plans in the surrounding Arab countries.

One man rule
Also, Trump’s drive to install himself as a one person dictator  has another downside for the capitalist class: As is always the case and is especially true for the narcissistic Trump, freed of constraints, one person dictators always tend to be capricious, arbitrary and corrupt. This creates uncertainty, which always inhibits investment. Trump is following the script to a “t”. He pardoned NY mayor Eric Adams in order to get Adams’ political support. He’s pardoned a series of similarly corrupt politicians and investors, including Todd and Julie Christie, who committed bank fraud. He pardoned big time gangster Larry Hoover and rapper NBA YoungBoy. All of these pardons were granted for Trump’s own personal benefit, and follow his pardoning of some 1500 violent fascist organizers/participants in Jan. 6. 

Now, he is considering pardoning the fascists who planned to kidnap and kill Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer. Among other things, this heightens the danger of right wing terrorism and simple gangsterism and financial crime within the US.

In addition to expressing their views themselves, the views of the capitalist class are also filtered through the attitudes of members of their government agencies.

FBI Director Kash Patel and his Deputy Director Dan Bongino are totally political appointees.

That is what is happening in the case of  Trump’s making law enforcement his own personal, political tool. He is creating discontent in the nation’s premier law enforcement agency, the FBI, whose upper management Trump is packing with inexperienced and incompetent personal loyalists. This is creating widespread discontent among FBI agents according to NBC among other sources.

A similar discontent is reported to be developing within the military. One report (which is disputed elsewhere) claims that when Trump spoke at the West Point graduation ceremony, numerous cadets were unwilling to shake his hand because of his “dishonorable” behavior. Whether that is true or not, his purge of the military  will have serious repercussions. The top officers who are purged will have loyalists all down the line. They will not like seeing the commanding officers with whom they are connected purged, especially since the very top military chiefs are incompetent. Furthermore, nearly one-third of U.S. soldiers are people of color. The Trump administration’s increasingly racist policies within the military will inevitably cause discontent among them.

How far will all this go?

The mixed reaction of the corporate clients to the law firms’ capitulation to Trump shows that while some are looking out for the interests of their class as a whole, they are always seeking to get a leg up on their capitalist rivals also. As for the military, there is virtually no chance of open widespread disobedience at this time. But there’s the rub. How about under very different circumstances?

What would happen, for example, if Trump uses some excuse to declare martial law, call the troops out onto the streets and, in effect, cancel the 2026 election? Anybody who thinks that’s impossible is at least 15 years behind the times. Could that provoke a truly massive movement from below, something similar to the French yellow vest movement of 2018? That is certainly possible. Under those circumstances, if the military is ordered to attack millions of protesters, discipline among the rank and file soldiers could start to crack. That would have an effect up the chain of command. You could see a similar effect in all wings of the capitalist establishment.

This is just one possible scenario. The world is filled with so much explosive material, and tensions within US society are increasing so much that all sorts of other events could spark off a crisis. It also can’t be ruled out that Trump’s drive towards a one person dictatorship will continue without major obstacles. In any case, the views of and divisions within the capitalist class are important to account for.

The capitalists thought they could at least partially control Trump’s call for tariffs.