“The symbiosis of leader and masses is a greater danger than any tariff policy or the takeover of the Administration by a group of enlightened plutocrats.”
Trump and his assault team, the Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE) led by Elon Musk, form a new Olympus. Thunder and lightning to expel Gazans from their lands where a luxurious hotel-residential complex will be built; imperial claims over Greenland and the Panama Canal alongside tariffs on American allies, Canada and Mexico, as well as an increase in tariffs on Chinese goods and general tariffs on aluminium and steel. Now it's Spain's turn. However, behind closed doors, the DOGE guys are demanding data, confidential information from the Department of the Treasury. A federal judge issues a temporary order to halt the assault, but Russian roulette does not stop: the agency responsible for aid to poor countries, USAID, has been dismantled; judges and prosecutors are questioning the constitutionality of these actions while planning doubts about the Supreme Court's final decision. Examining these decisions, Rana Foroohar writes in the FT, the tariff threats seem insignificant. And in the meantime, the new Secretary of the Treasury hands over the keys to the system to Musk while the highest-ranking official of the institution has been dismissed for refusing to provide DOGE with confidential information. A private citizen, Musk, will have access to confidential taxpayer data. Is this an illegal act or a breach of the Constitution?
As for tariffs and the Gazan initiative, the aim is to impose an imperial decision urbi et orbe, sanctions and deportations instead of cooperation. Whims. The decline in trade exchanges between countries has coincided not only with a slowdown in international economic activity but also with democratic setbacks. To impoverish our neighbour and to impoverish ourselves. But Trump is President of the USA by the free choice of a majority of its citizens, confident in his message: “Make America Great Again” (MAGA). Y.N. Harari reminds us in his recent book Nexus that “Trump in his inaugural speech in 2017 announced that a small group from the capital of our nation has enjoyed the rewards of governing while the people have borne the cost.” Successful populist rhetoric. Power, absolute power requires and gains the cooperation of a large number of followers. The Germany of National Socialism or Stalinist and Soviet Russia are examples of the alienation of the masses that followed their leaders. The symbiosis of leader and masses swept away democracies. A danger greater than any tariff policy or the takeover of the American administration by a group of enlightened plutocrats alien to the “moral principles” of the first great defender of the market as an effective distributor of resources, Adam Smith. Trump and Musk and their large cohort of followers are not liberals, they are not democrats but a new and reckless totalitarian experiment that has already taken root in the USA and is beginning to spread rapidly across Europe. Pedro Sánchez warns, while Núñez Feijóo prudently remains silent and Abascal cheers enthusiastically. But the Spanish language has been eliminated from communications at the White House and a large number of Spanish speakers are being imprisoned or deported. The compassionate message of the Protestant bishop will have been forgotten before spring arrives on the banks of the Potomac.♦
