Donald Trump is creating a new form of capitalism. His economic policy is driven by his personal whims rather than the needs of capital, the results of which are likely to bring disaster to our economy and extreme hardship to American workers and the American people.

Trump voters have consistently overlooked or dismissed his glaring failures as a businessman who squandered his great family wealth. Born with a golden spoon in his mouth, this self-anointed Commander of Capitalism had an allowance of $200,000 annually as a toddler and became a millionaire at the age of eight. After he finished college his daddy provided him with a million dollars annually, but once on his own he nearly lost his fortune. Remember, he filed for bankruptcy six times. Never one to admit failure of any kind, Trump thinks he’s qualified to save the American economy because he thinks he’s a master deal maker. We can thank NBC for falsely promoting his image as NYC’s most successful real estate entrepreneur. He was nothing of the kind. The truth is the big absentee owners of New York City real estate and banking shunned him. Before NBC rescued Trump, his public life consisted of appearances at professional wrestling matches, dwindling movie cameos, and hawking his fake university.

But facts have consequences and the consequence of corporate broadcasting’s legitimation of Trump set him on the path to the White House. Now, as another consequence, he’s creating a new neo-fascist economy, a capitalism more obedient to him than to profit. And no institution, no law, in fact, nothing is going to stop him. As he put it, “I have the right to do whatever I want as president.” Consider these few examples: He unilaterally imposed tariffs on most countries, including a couple that don’t exist, and changes the rate on an almost daily basis. After calling for the firing of the head of Intel, he forced the company to surrender a 10% stake to the government. He put the squeeze on Nvidia and AMD – you want an export license, gimme what I want – forcing them to turn over 15% of revenue earned from selling chips in China. His old reliable mode of economic extortion – the threat of even higher tariffs – convinced Apple to “promise” to invest billions in the United States, and he agreed to the sale of U.S. Steel to Japan’s Nippon Steel providing he has the power to influence corporate decisions. He’s now using that power to prevent the building of a steel mill in blue state Illinois. Sounds like an extortion racket, doesn’t it? He used the government’s leverage over a potential merger to get CBS to kick Stephen Colbert off the air and he has tried to use the same script with ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel. As Steve Ratner notes in the New York Times, the White House keeps a scorecard of over 500 corporations and Trade Associations based on their support for Trump’s tax and spending programs. Trump’s new American economy works on one principle: Support Trump or suffer the consequences (Putin excepted, of course).

Trump’s excursions into the corporate economy make a mockery of the myth of the free market. It presents the captains of America’s corporate economy, an economy mostly dominated by a handful of companies that control the bulk of their markets, with a Hobson’s choice: do they follow the interests of capital or do they risk retribution by resisting the president’s threats? As Baron and Sweezy show, capital seeks its most profitable outlets, but Trump’s arbitrary whims take corporations in a different direction. Consider the case of Apple. To avoid unacceptably high tariffs the company made a vague promise to invest up to six billion dollars in the United States, even though the costs of domestic production are exorbitantly higher. Given Trump’s immigration policies and Apple’s reliance on a specialized labor force, the absence of a trained labor pool will drive up production costs even more. Sales and profits are likely to fall under this scenario. How will stockholders respond? Will investors start funneling their money elsewhere? If so, what does Apple’s future and the future of other firms Trump is extorting look like?

Trump’s approach creates uncertainty that is almost sure to lead to disinvestment in the American economy. Investors require certainty. Why would capital flow into or even remain in the United States given Trump’s almost daily changes to his tariff policies and extortion of even the biggest companies? Businesses large and small tried to stockpile parts and commodities before the tariffs hit and even absorb some rising costs to cushion prices to their consumers. But the stockpiles are depleted and stockholders will tolerate reduced profits for only so long. Now it’s likely that companies will pay for the tariffs by cutting jobs and wages, further increasing the country’s already record-breaking economic inequality. Tariffs are just one aspect of the uncertainty that Trump has wrought upon us. A massive decline in foreign investment will drive up long-term interest rates even as Trump tries to force lower short-term rates on the once independent FED. Trump’s actions will make access to capital more costly, triggering an economic slowdown, increase unemployment, and undercut the value of the U.S. dollar. All this all but guarantees the US will lose the many imperial advantages of the dollar as the world’s most secure international currency.

Some pundits call Trump’s policies socialism. They miss the point. Trump has no interest in using the means of production for the public good. To the contrary, his program, such as it is, follows the fascist playbook: make all important institutions — corporations, universities, law firms, the entertainment industry, professional sports — serve and reflect the leaders’ power craving. Trump’s fantasy-driven narcissism is everywhere: meddling in the private sector; total indifference to facts and truth; a super nationalistic MAGA celebration of a falsified golden era; his ever-present self-glorification as the one and only man “who can fix anything;” disregard for the law and tradition; persecution of enemies; and the dominant role played by military spending. And let’s not forget the gawdy public displays of military power, such as a mass parade and mobilization of troops in Democratic led cities. American monopoly capitalism was far from perfect, but the jugular question here isn’t ideological. It’s whether the already flawed version of American “free enterprise” can survive fascist irrationality. Subordinating the real economy of the United States to the whims of “the great leader” makes no sense. But it is our governing reality. The real question then is, can we survive it?

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