You Can't Build Useful Alliances With Fascists, Dumbass

Trump's 2024 election campaign featured no limit of populist gibberish aimed at conning misinformed voters into supporting his autocratic bullshit.

From claims that Trump would be anti-war, to his opportunistic swindling of the chronically ill via his MAHA movement, it was parade of lies to make fascism seem folksy, fun, and decidedly in tune with the interests of the common pleb.

As a multi-decade consumer rights reporter, one of the more insulting campaign lies was the claim that the second Trump administration would be tough on corporate power, refocus on "kitchen table issues" like affordability, "rein in big tech," and embrace meaningful antitrust reform.

The GOP, MAGA influence or not, has never seen a concentrated corporate monopoly it didn't trip over itself to coddle. The party has dedicated itself for generations to the unchecked corporate domination of all things, free from even rudimentary oversight from pesky "innovation killing" regulators.

Campaign contribution slathered centrist Democrats often haven't been much better. The result has been an American experiment that's long been too corrupt to function in the public interest. A country where corporate power now runs free, broadly unchecked from any meaningful constraints.

The unsubtle impact is everywhere, whether it's a for-profit healthcare system broken by design, arms dealers blocking common sense gun control, sagging pollution standards and enforcement, or pointless permawar. It creates an environment that is, if I may be so bold, decidedly unpleasant for everyone.

Enter the con man.

Historically, authoritarian assholes love to exploit growing public anger at sagging institutions hollowed out by corruption and the extraction class. Then once in power, they'll engage in the same significantly worse, always while swaddling themselves in populist propaganda. History is not subtle about this.

That was certainly the case with the run up to the second Trump administration, when the corporate press pummeled everybody, repeatedly, with the false claims that the GOP had suddenly and uncharacteristically seen the light on corporate power, and was backing bold new bipartisan initiatives to to rein in big companies.

The seething public anger at shitty tech companies was particularly fertile ground ripe for exploitation by soulless Trump authoritarians. From 2020 on you couldn't go more than thirty seconds without reading something in the press about how much the GOP was earnestly now taking aim at big tech companies.

That it was provably, documentably untrue simply didn't matter:

This campaign was even propped up by purported "progressive antitrust experts" like Matt Stoller, who spent a lot of time giving Republicans credibility on antitrust they never had to actually earn (this since-deleted website about his bizarre affection for Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley was a lot of fun).

Stoller clearly believed that you could partner with fascists (and their phony populism) to engage in real, substantive reform.

You saw the same sort of willful delusion when Elon Musk's DOGE began lying about its plans for government efficiency reform, an effort numerous Democrats validated as something that could be collaborated with. Click to watch this Instagram video, please:

Around this time you saw several organizations abandon their aversion to bigots and zealots because they believed the long-term policy victories were possible though collaboration with the soulless dark vacuum of authoritarianism.

Stoller repeatedly informed his massive audience that all manner of GOP liars, including since-disgraced Rep. Matt Gaetz (busted for paying to have sex with a minor), were reputable voices on antitrust and reining in corporate power you could work with toward meaningful ends:

As we know now, it was all bullshit.

Not only did all of this sound and fury result in absolutely no serious policy or legislative wins, authoritarians leveraged this unearned credibility from across the political spectrum to take power, then engage in one of the most devastating attacks on corporate oversight, labor, and consumer rights in generations.

All of the repeatedly hyped "reining in big tech" legislation died. All the promise of bipartisan coalition was replaced by tech giants that quickly rushed to kiss the bulbous ass of fascism and abandon any fleeting pretense they ever had ethics.

The second Trump administration has arguably been one of the most corrupt administrations in U.S. history, engaging in absolutely devastating attacks on the entirety of corporate oversight, consumer protection, labor rights, regulatory autonomy, public safety, and environmental law.

It's the golden age for corruption. For his part, Stoller has largely memory holed his role in bringing us here. And the press, which loves to pretend corruption doesn't exist, has been hard at work drumming up euphemisms to try and explain why none of our public interest apparatuses fucking work.

Thanks to the Trump Supreme Court and his hand-picked district courts, it's increasingly impossible for regulators to hold corporate bad actors accountable for pretty much anything. The administration's multi-year promises on affordability and antitrust were an obvious lie that should have been apparent to a toddler.

The body rots from the head down, and Donald Trump was always rotten to the core. Yet the lie told to everyone last election season by Stoller, the press, and countless pundits was that while Trump 2.0 might be bumpy, it would feature an extension of the sort of antitrust reform popularized by Biden FTC boss Lina Khan.

Of course the opposite happened.

All of the meaningful antitrust work underway from previous administrations was dismantled. All the purportedly pro-antitrust members of the Trump movement (who weren't particularly consistent on this subject to begin with) were summarily fired at the direct behest of dodgy Trump-loving corporate lobbyists.

I spent a lot of time trying to warn people last election season that the GOP threats against big tech had nothing to do with "reining in corporate power," and everything to do with bullying tech away from engaging in even rudimentary content moderation of race-baiting right wing propaganda online.

As it turns out bullying wasn't even needed because many U.S. tech CEOs proved to be gushingly pro fascist anyway. Despite all of these very hard, very recent lessons, I still somehow routinely see journalists and pundits give the Trump admin unearned credibility on everything from cybersecurity to AI regulations.

These are corrupt, extremely racist, wildly incompetents zealots transactionally focused, exclusively, on their own wealth and power. They are fascists. They are not useful partners in any meaningful endeavor, and if you're still supporting any such notion you're either a virulent rube or complicit.

Anybody obtuse to the lazy veneer of hollow populism needs to revisit the history books, which aren't subtle about the way authoritarians come to power. All of this was trivially easy to predict, especially given our unpalatable familiarity with the soulless transactional demagogue that is Donald Trump.

Trying to build alliances with fascist zealots is like trying to develop an intimate relationship with a running chainsaw. These are not collaborators to find common ground with. These are not people you even debate. Fascism is a purely cancerous, extractive movement that can and should only be destroyed.