At first sight, the 2024 presidential election seemed to be in keeping with Trump’s image as an economic populist and an anti-establishment politician. According to exit polls, Trump was opposed by most people from upper-income families, and was also overwhelmingly opposed by the CEOs of the largest hundred corporations. He won the election in part because of a surge in support from lower-income voters. 

But a closer look reveals a more complex picture. Compared with Harris, a much higher percentage of Trump’s campaign funding came from billionaires. Thus, Trump received support from a cross section of different income groups. Who will actually benefit when he returns to office? 

Trump Has Nothing To Offer Working People

Trump, who appears to have won largely because of anger about the economy, has said he will deliver “the best jobs, the biggest paychecks and the brightest economic future this country has ever seen.” But his actual policies are unlikely to benefit the working class. 

Consider Trump’s planned tariffs, which he says will help move more jobs to the US. In reality, when one country imposes tariffs, the affected countries generally retaliate by imposing tariffs of their own—the Mexican government and others have already said that they will do this if Trump follows through on his tariff threats. “Trade wars” like this tend to reduce economic growth on all sides. 

Next, consider Trump’s plan for mass deportations. In addition to upending millions of lives, these deportations—if they are carried out—will have important ripple effects throughout the economy, as businesses close because their employees and/or customers are no longer around. The likely result would be a net loss of jobs for US citizens. 

What about the corporate tax cuts that Trump says will help to boost the economy? While these tax cuts would certainly boost corporate profits, corporations appear to already have more profits than they know what to do with; the windfall gains from Trump’s 2017 corporate tax cuts were largely distributed to shareholders, instead of being invested in new production. As a recent review of existing studies on the issue demonstrated, there is no reason to believe that corporate tax cuts stimulate economic growth. 

Similarly, Trump has argued that he would save money on healthcare costs by banning coverage for gender-affirming care, but this was based on false claims that vastly overstated the actual costs. In reality, healthcare spending has rapidly increased in the US because we have a parasitic for-profit system that exists to squeeze as much money out of patients as possible. 

Given the state of the US economy during the past four years, it is not surprising that many people remember Trump’s first term as a comparatively better time. But although inflation-adjusted income for the typical family grew by a total of 8% during Trump’s previous four years in office, this actually marked a significant slowdown from the 12% increase during the four years before that. 

Trump And The Dictatorship Of The Rich

Even if Trump failed to boost economic growth during his first term, he did continue the upward redistribution of wealth that was already happening under both Democratic and Republican administrations. Such is the logic of a political system in which both of the major parties are controlled and funded by the ultra-rich. 

In fact wealthy people dominate the US political system in a wide variety of ways. For instance when new laws are passed, they are subject to “judicial review” by the courts. This gives veto power to judges who, besides being very well paid themselves, typically come from wealthy families and have adopted the basic worldview of the wealthy; a majority of current Supreme Court justices are millionaires, and the court frequently makes decisions that benefit the rich at the expense of ordinary people. Similarly, the actual implementation of the law is generally the responsibility of unelected, highly paid government officials who often hope to eventually work for the companies they are supposed to be regulating, thus creating a corrupt “revolving door” relationship. 

The result is a system that is rigged in favor of the rich. Thus, for example, in 1916, Congress passed a ban on child labor (the Keating–Owen Act), but the law was simply declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court and set aside; later, in the 1930s and under pressure from a wave of mass strikes, the courts were forced to accept a new ban on child labor, but even today the ban frequently goes unenforced, because businesses’ need for cheap labor takes precedence over the well-being of children. In fact employers in the US are able to systematically violate labor law with virtual impunity, while small legal infractions by poor people are harshly policed. 

Within this billionaire-dominated system, political differences can still exist. For example, the battle over the debt ceiling in 2023 was essentially a fight between different factions of ultra-rich donors and the US Chamber of Commerce. Similarly, in the 2024 election, billionaires were split in their support between Trump and Harris. But this should not be confused with the idea that either group of billionaires, or their representatives, will fight for the working class—they won’t. 

In short, despite his anti-establishment veneer, Trump’s approach fits squarely within a political system that has always functioned as a dictatorship of the rich. Socialists call for the overthrow of this system; we fight for a new society in which the economy is put under public control, and all public officials are elected, recallable and paid the average workers’ wage. 

What To Expect Under Trump 2.0

Unsurprisingly, Trump has chosen two billionaires, Howard Lutnick and Linda McMahon, to lead the “transition team” that will staff his new administration. These staffing decisions will ultimately also have to be approved by the Senate, which has long been a millionaire’s club. Thus, during Trump’s second term in office, the wealthy will continue to run things. 

To get a sense of what this will mean during the next four years, it is useful to look again at Trump’s pledge to conduct mass deportations. Some of Trump’s working-class supporters might believe that if more undocumented workers are kicked out of the country, then this will push wages up for everyone else. But this ignores the way that a billionaire-run system actually works. 

In practice, businesses use deportations as a union-busting tactic; when undocumented immigrants fight for better pay or participate in union drives, bosses frequently head them off by having the workers deported. In this way, the threat of deportation contributes to a race to the bottom that depresses living standards for all workers. As long as billionaires run things, they will always ensure that they have as much cheap labor as they need; deportations will only serve to make workers more divided and intimidated, while also destroying lives and ripping families apart. 

Against this, socialists demand a full extension of labor and political rights for all working people, irrespective of their immigration status. We need to beat back the divide-and-conquer tactics of the billionaires and fight for a new society that is democratically run by the working class. During the next four years, this fight will have to include building committees in schools, neighborhoods and workplaces for organized mass resistance against deportations.