Israel-Firsters and Wall Street CEOs Rule America
Uncontested in the Time of Trump
By James Petras
Al-Jazeerah, CCUN,
September 12, 2017
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Jared Kushner, 2017 |
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Who Rules America?
The Power Elite in the Time of Trump
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Introduction
In the last few months, several competing political, economic and
military sectors
- linked to distinct ideological and ethnic groups
- have clearly emerged at the centers of
power.
We can identify some of the key competing and interlocking
directorates of the
power elite:
1. Free marketers, with the ubiquitous presence of the ‘Israel First’
crowd.
2. National capitalists, linked to rightwing ideologues.
3.
Generals, linked to the national security and the Pentagon apparatus, as
well as
defense industry.
4. Business elites, linked to global
capital.
This essay attempts to define the power wielders and evaluate their
range of power
and its impact.
The Economic Power Elite: Israel-Firsters
and Wall Street CEOs
‘Israel Firsters’ dominate
the top economic and political positions within the
Trump regime
and, interestingly, are among the Administration’s most vociferous
opponents. These include: the Federal Reserve Chairwoman,
Janet Yellen, as well
as her
Vice-Chair, Stanley
Fischer, an Israeli citizen and former (sic) Governor of
the Bank of
Israel.
Jared Kushner,
President Trump’s son-in-law and an Orthodox Jew, acts as his top
adviser on Middle East Affairs. Kushner, a New Jersey real estate mogul,
set himself up
as the archenemy of the economic nationalists in the
Trump inner circle. He supports
every Israeli power and land grab in
the Middle East and works closely with
David
Friedman, US
Ambassador to Israel (and fanatical supporter of the illegal Jewish
settlements) and Jason Greenblatt,
Special Representative for International negotiations.
With three
Israel-Firsters determining Middle East policy, there is not even a fig
leaf of
balance.
The Treasury Secretary is Steven
Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs executive,
who leads
the neo-liberal free market wing of the Wall Street sector within the
Trump
regime. Gary Cohn,
a longtime Wall Street influential, heads the National Economic
Council. They form the core business advisers and lead the neo-liberal
anti-nationalist
Trump coalition committed to undermining economic
nationalist policies.
An influential voice in the Attorney General’s
office is Rod Rosenstein,
who
appointed Robert Mueller the chief investigator, which led to
the removal of nationalists
from the Trump Administration.
The fairy godfather of the anti-nationalist Mnuchin-Cohn team is
Lloyd
Blankfein, Goldman Sach’s Chairman. The ‘Three Israel
First bankerteers’ are
spearheading the fight to deregulate the
banking sector, which had ravaged the economy,
leading to the 2008
collapse and foreclosure of millions of American homeowners and
businesses.
The ‘Israel-First’ free market elite is spread
across the entire ruling political
spectrum, including ranking
Democrats in Congress, led by Senate Minority leader
Charles Schumer
and the Democratic Head of the House Intelligence Committee Adam
Schiff. The Democratic Party Israel Firsters have allied with their free
market brethren in
pushing for investigations and mass media
campaigns against Trump’s economic
nationalist supporters and their
eventual purge from the administration.
The Military Power Elite: The Generals
The military power elite has successfully taken over from the elected
president in
major decision-making. Where once the war powers rested
with the President and the
Congress, today a collection of fanatical
militarists make and execute military policy,
decide war zones and
push for greater militarization of domestic policing. Trump has
turned crucial decisions over to those he fondly calls ‘my Generals’ as
he continues to
dodge accusations of corruption and racism.
Trump appointed Four-Star General James ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis (retired
USMC) - a
general who led the war in Afghanistan and Iraq - as
Secretary of Defense. Mattis
(whose military ‘glories’ included
bombing a large wedding party in Iraq) is leading the
campaign
to escalate US military intervention in Afghanistan – a war and
occupation that
Trump had openly condemned during his campaign. As
Defense Secretary, General ‘Mad
Dog’ pushed the under-enthusiastic
Trump to announce an increase in US ground troops
and air attacks
throughout Afghanistan. True to his much-publicized nom-de-guerre, the
general is a rabid advocate for a nuclear attack against North
Korea.
Lieutenant General H. R. McMaster (an active duty Three Star General
and long
time proponent of expanding the wars in the Middle East and
Afghanistan) became
National Security Adviser after the purge of
Trump’s ally Lt. General Michael Flynn,
who opposed the campaign of
confrontation and sanctions against Russia and China.
McMaster has
been instrumental in removing ‘nationalists’ from Trumps administration
and joins General ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis in pushing for a greater build-up
of US troops in
Afghanistan.
Lt. General John Kelly (Retired USMC), another Iraq war veteran and
Middle
East regime change enthusiast, was appointed White House
Chief of Staff after the ouster
of Reince Priebus.
The Administration’s Troika of three generals share with the
neoliberal Israel
First Senior Advisors to Trump, Stephen Miller and
Jared Kushner, a deep hostility
toward Iran and fully endorse
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s demand that the 2015
Nuclear
Accord with Tehran be scrapped.
Trump’s military directorate guarantees that spending for overseas
wars will not
be affected by budget cuts, recessions or even
national disasters.
The ‘Generals’, the Israel First free
marketers and the Democratic Party elite lead
the fight against the
economic nationalists and have succeeded in ensuring that Obama
Era
military and economic empire building would remain in place and even
expand.
The Economic Nationalist Elite
The leading strategist and ideologue of Trump’s economic nationalist
allies in the
White House was Steve Bannon. He had been chief
political architect and Trump adviser
during the electoral campaign.
Bannon devised an election campaign favoring domestic
manufacturers
and American workers against the Wall Street and multinational corporate
free marketers. He developed Trump’s attack on the global trade
agreements, which had
led to the export of capital and the
devastation of US manufacturing labor.
Equally significant, Bannon crafted Trumps early public opposition to
the
generals’ 15-year trillion-dollar intervention in Afghanistan
and the even more costly
series of wars in the Middle East favored
by the Israel-Firsters, including the ongoing
proxy-mercenary war to
overthrow the secular nationalist government of Syria.
Within 8 month
of Trump’s administration, the combined forces of the free market
economic and military elite, the Democratic Party leaders, overt
militarists in the
Republican Party and their allies in the mass
media succeeded in purging Bannon – and
marginalized the mass
support base for his ‘America First’ economic nationalist and
anti-‘regime change’ agenda.
The anti-Trump ‘alliance’ will now target the remaining few economic
nationalists in the administration. These include: the CIA Director
Mike Pompeo, who
favors protectionism by weakening the Asian and
NAFTA trade agreements and Peter
Navarro, Chairman of the White
House Trade Council. Pompeo and Navarro face strong
opposition from
the ascendant neoliberal Zionist troika now dominating the Trump
regime.
In addition, there is Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross, a
billionaire and former
director of Rothschild Inc., who allied with
Bannon in threatening import quotas to
address the massive US trade
deficit with China and the European Union.
Another Bannon ally is US
Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer a former
military and
intelligence analyst with ties to the newsletter Breitbart. He is a
strong
opponent of the neoliberal, globalizers in and out of the
Trump regime.
‘Senior Adviser’ and Trump speechwriter, Stephen Miller actively
promotes the
travel ban on Muslims and stricter restrictions on
immigration. Miller represents the
Bannon wing of Trump’s zealously
pro-Israel cohort.
Sebastian Gorka, Trump’s Deputy Assistant in military and
intelligence affairs,
was more an ideologue than analyst, who wrote
for Breitbart and rode to office on
Bannon’s coat tails. Right after
removing Bannon, the ‘Generals’ purged Gorka in early
August on
accusations of ‘anti-Semitism’.
Whoever remains among Trump’s economic nationalists are significantly
handicapped by the loss of Steve Bannon who had provided leadership
and direction.
However, most have social and economic backgrounds,
which also link them to the
military power elite on some issues and
with the pro-Israel free marketers on others.
However, their core
beliefs had been shaped and defined by Bannon.
The Business Power Elite
Exon Mobile CEO Rex Tillerson, Trump’s Secretary of State and former
Texas
Governor Rick Perry, Energy Secretary lead the business elite.
Meanwhile, the business
elite associated with US manufacturing and
industry have little direct influence on
domestic or foreign policy.
While they follow the Wall Street free marketers on domestic
policy,
they are subordinated to the military elite on foreign policy and are
not allied with
Steve Bannon’s ideological core.
Trump’s business elite, which has no link to the economic
nationalists in the
Trump regime, provides a friendlier face to
overseas economic allies and adversaries.
Analysis and Conclusion.
The power elite cuts across party
affiliations, branches of government and
economic strategies.
It is not restricted to either political party, Republican or
Democratic. It includes free marketers, some economic nationalists, Wall
Street power
brokers and militarists. All compete and fight for
power, wealth and dominance within
this administration. The
correlation of forces is volatile, changing rapidly in short periods
of time – reflecting the lack of cohesion and coherence in the Trump
regime.
Never has the US power elite been subject to such monumental
changes in
composition and direction during the first year of a new
regime.
During the Obama Presidency, Wall Street and the Pentagon
comfortably shared
power with Silicon Valley billionaires and the
mass media elite. They were united in
pursuing an imperial
‘globalist’ strategy, emphasizing multiple theaters of war and multi
lateral free trade treaties, which was in the process of reducing
millions of American
workers to permanent helotry.
With the inauguration of President Trump, this power elite faced
challenges and
the emergence of a new strategic configuration, which
sought drastic changes in US
political economic and military policy.
The architect of the Trump’s campaign and strategy, Steve Bannon,
sought to
displace the global economic and military elite with his
alliance of economic nationalists,
manufacturing workers and
protectionist business elites. Bannon pushed for a major
break from
Obama’s policy of multiple permanent wars to expanding the domestic
market. He proposed troop withdrawal and the end of US military
operations in
Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq, while increasing a
combination of economic, political and
military pressure on China.
He sought to end sanctions and confrontation against
Moscow and
fashion economic ties between the giant energy producers in the US and
Russia.
While Bannon was
initially the chief strategist in the White House, he quickly
found himself faced with powerful
rivals inside the regime, and ardent opponents among
Democratic and Republican globalists and especially from
the Zionist – neoliberals who
systematically maneuvered to win strategic economic and policy
positions within the
regime. Instead of being a coherent platform
from which to formulate a new radical
economic strategy, the Trump
Administration was turned into a chaotic and vicious
‘terrain for
struggle’. The Bannon’s economic strategy barely got off the ground.
The mass media and operatives within the state apparatus, linked to
Obama’s
permanent war strategy, first attacked Trump’s proposed
economic reconciliation with
Russia. To undermine any
‘de-escalation’, they fabricated the Russian spy and election
manipulation conspiracy. Their first successful shots were fired at Lt.
General Michael
Flynn, Bannon’s ally and key proponent for
reversing the Obama/Clinton policy of
military
confrontation with Russia. Flynn was quickly destroyed
and openly threatened
with prosecution as a ‘Russian agent’ in
whipped-up hysteria that resembled the heydays
of Senator Joseph
McCarthy.
Key economic posts in the Trump regime were split between the Israel-Firster
neoliberals and the economic nationalists. The ‘Deal Maker’
President Trump attempted
to harness Wall Street-affiliated
neoliberal Zionists to the economic nationalists, linked to
Trump’s
working class electoral base, in formulating new trade relations with
the EU and
China, which would favor US manufacturers. Given the
irreconcilable differences
between these forces, Trump’s naïve
‘deal’ weakened Bannon, undermined his leadership
and wrecked his
nationalist economic strategy.
While Bannon had secured several important economic appointees, the
Zionist
neoliberals undercut their authority. The Fischer-Mnuchin-Cohn
cohort successfully set a
competing agenda.
The entire
Congressional elite from both parties united to paralyze the Trump
Bannon agenda. The giant corporate mass media served as a hysterical and
rumor-laden
megaphone for zealous Congressional and FBI
investigators magnifying every nuance of
Trump’s US Russia relations
in search of conspiracy. The combined state-Congressional
and Media
apparatus overwhelmed the unorganized and unprepared mass base of
Bannon electoral coalition which had elected Trump.
Thoroughly defeated, the toothless President Trump retreated in
desperate search
for a new power configuration, turning his
day-to-day operations over to ‘his generals’.
The elected civilian
President of the United States embraced his generals’ pursuit of a
new military-globalist alliance and escalation of military threats
foremost against North
Korea, but including Russia and China.
Afghanistan was immediately targeted for an
expanded intervention.
Trump effectively replaced Bannon’s economic nationalist strategy
with a revival
Obama’s multi-war military approach.
The Trump regime re-launched the US attacks on Afghanistan and Syria
–
exceeding Obama’s use of drone attacks on suspected Muslim
militants. He intensified
sanctions against Russia and Iran,
embraced Saudi Arabia’s war against the people of
Yemen and turned
the entire Middle East policy over to his ultra-Zionist Political
Advisor
(Real Estate mogul and son-in-law) Jared Kushner and US
Ambassador to Israel David
Friedman.
Trump’s retreat turned
into a grotesque rout. The Generals embraced the
neoliberal Zionists
in Treasury and the Congressional global militarists. Communication
Directory Anthony Scaramucci was fired. Trump’s Chief of Staff General
Joe Kelly
purged Steve Bannon. Sebastian Gorka was kicked out.
The eight months of internal struggle between the economic
nationalists and the
neoliberals has ended: The
Zionist-globalist alliance with Trump’s Generals now
dominate the Power Elite.
Trump is desperate to adapt to the new configuration, allied to his
own
Congressional adversaries and the rabidly anti-Trump mass media.
Having all but decimated Trump’s economic nationalists and their
program, the
Power Elite then mounted a series of media-magnified
events centering around a local
punch-out in Charlottesville,
Virginia between ‘white supremacists’ and ‘anti-fascists’.
After the
confrontation led to death and injury, the media used Trump’s inept
attempt to
blame both ‘baseball bat’-wielding sides, as proof of the
President’s links to neo-Nazis
and the KKK. Neoliberal and Zionists,
within the Trump administration and his business
councils, all
joined in the attack on the President, denouncing his failure to
immediately
and unilaterally blame rightwing extremists for the
mayhem.
Trump is turning to sectors of the business and Congressional elite
in a desperate
attempt to hold onto waning support via promises to
enact massive tax cuts and
deregulate the entire private sector.
The decisive issue was no longer over one policy or another or even
strategy.
Trump had already lost on all accounts. The ‘final
solution’ to the problem of the election
of Donald Trump is moving
foreword step-by-step – his impeachment and possible arrest
by any
and all means.
What the rise and destruction of economic nationalism in the ‘person’
of Donald
Trump tells us is that the American political system
cannot tolerate any capitalist reforms
that might threaten the
imperial globalist power elite.
Writers and activists used to think that only democratically elected
socialist
regimes would be the target of systematic coup d’état.
Today the political boundaries are
far more restrictive. To call for
‘economic nationalism’, completely within the capitalist
system, and
seek reciprocal trade agreements is to invite savage political attacks,
trumped
up conspiracies and internal military take-overs ending in
‘regime change’.
The global-militarist elite purge of economic
nationalists and anti-militarists was
supported by the entire US
left with a few notable exceptions. For the first time in
history
the left became an organizational weapon of the pro-war, pro-Wall
Street, pro
Zionist Right in the campaign to oust President Trump.
Local movements and leaders,
notwithstanding, trade union
functionaries, civil rights and immigration politicians,
liberals
and social democrats have joined in the fight for restoring the worst of
all worlds:
the Clinton-Bush-Obama/Clinton policy of permanent
multiple wars, escalating
confrontations with Russia, China, Iran
and Venezuela and Trump’s deregulation of the
US economy and massive
tax-cuts for big business.
We have gone a long-way backwards:
from elections to purges and from peace
agreements to police state
investigations. Today’s economic nationalists are labeled
‘fascists’; and displaced workers are ‘the deplorables’!
Americans have a lot to learn and unlearn. Our strategic advantage
may reside in
the fact that political life in the United States
cannot get worse – we really have touched
bottom and (barring a
nuclear war) we can only look up.
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