How the Capitalism of the 1980s Created Donald Trump’s Theory of the State
The proliferation of privately held companies during the Reagan years laid the foundations for Trump’s approach to government: rule by fiat and outside the scrutiny of the public.
Ever since Donald Trump’s election in 2016, liberals and the left have struggled to understand the meaning of his rise, and that of “Trumpism,” for American politics.
When Trump entered the political scene, he was hard to take seriously. In his first campaign, he seemed—initially, at least—to be a zombie headline straight from the New York Post’s “Page Six”: a faded reality-TV star, a bankrupt real estate speculator, a huckster, a creep, and a punch line.
Even after he won the election, many liberals refused to recognize that he was all of those things and also the president of the United States.
Author's summary: Trump's rise to power is rooted in 1980s capitalism.