Trump is a symptom – The disease is monopoly capitalism!

The end of the Trump regime will still leave racism, poverty and imperialist war

By David Sole, January 14, 2026 – Fighting Words

The endless outrages of Donald Trump and his henchmen lead some people to believe that our struggle begins and ends with the criminal in the White House. No doubt, the numerous protests on a broad range of issues must focus on the president who is promoting attacks on all progressive gains won over the past one hundred years. But it would be a serious error to fail to understand that Trump is a symptom, an outgrowth of the system of corporate/banking capitalism that runs this country.

Saying this does not reduce Trump’s criminality. It does give us a better understanding of the forces at work in the economic and political arenas that have been causing poverty, racism and war for over a century and that have given rise to the fascist threat that Trump represents.

Capitalists have run the United States since the defeat of the slave-owners in the Civil War in 1865. That early capitalism grew into modern monopoly capitalism of the giant banks and corporations who dominate both political parties and most politicians in order to shape the laws and policies to their own benefit. Any gains that benefit poor and working people have been fought for and won in mass struggles in the streets and workplaces over the years.

These banks and corporations, and the billionaire class that controls them, are driven to increase their profits by any means available. Economic control is supplemented by political and ideological control over the hundreds of millions that do all the work. Tools to keep the working class weak and divided include promoting racism, anti-woman, anti-LGBTQ+, anti-union, anti-immigrant, anti-Arab, prejudices among the population.

Capitalism also seeks to control the wealth of the world by economic and military control. That is called imperialism. The enormous Pentagon budget that takes our tax dollars away from housing, health care, education and other needed social programs, also goes to fight working people abroad, who, just like us, want to control their own nations’ wealth. That explains Trump’s military attacks against Iran, Venezuela, Palestine, Nigeria, etc. But U.S. imperialism has, for over 125 years driven hundreds of interventions, coups, regime changes and wars (Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, etc. etc.) under both Republicans and Democrats.

The wealth of this nation has vastly increased with modern technology, but it is more and more concentrated in the hands of a few. Yet it is never enough for them. That is why a section of the ruling, billionaire class is promoting Donald Trump and his MAGA program. The passage of the “Big, Beautiful, Bill” this past Fall and the other Project 2025 programs are all aimed to rapidly slash social programs to transfer hundreds of billions of dollars to enrich the already obscenely rich.

Some of the billionaires oppose Trump – but only because they fear that his attacks on poor and working people might provoke a revolutionary movement that could threaten the very capitalist system. That explains why the Democratic Party always backs down from fighting Trump or defending the rights and gains of the poor and working people.

As the protests against Trump grow into a mass movement, it is important to remember that the Democrats will try to divert us out of the streets and into the 2026 elections. But Trump is a symptom, so whatever happens to him, the capitalist system remains. Our scattered movements must continue and build unity to battle all the evils the capitalist system promotes while we fight for a new system that puts people first – socialism.