The Trump-Musk regret

Since the day Trump took office, the world has been watching as if on pins and needles. While Trump, who came to power with the promise of making the US "Great America," creates a problem wherever he touches, it is also wrong to attribute the issue solely to Trump. The issue is not just specific to the US, but to global capitalism; however, there is also a deep panic and anxiety in the US regarding two issues. Trump's playing with certain customs duties and mentioning the annexation of certain countries or territories, like a truck with failed brakes attacking its surroundings, is, beyond aggression, the result of the US's deeply felt concerns about loss of space or dominance. In this context, it can be thought that the real issue in Trump's mind is to "make America great again" by discarding the "dead weight" that, according to Trump, has perched upon America. Indeed, the mass layoffs of public personnel at the suggestion of the uncouth and spoiled Musk led to large protests by people who lost their jobs. However, besides leaving thousands of people unemployed as a result of the layoffs, the US cannot be made great by partially closing the economy to the outside world with customs duty measures, and the boomerang effect of the measures taken could cause even more severe destruction to the country.

It appears that the main issue is concentrated on two topics. One of these is the current account deficit, which hovers around 4% of the national income, and the employment problem; the second is the fear of losing technological and productivity superiority. Both of these issues, in connection with each other, reflect the anxiety of losing the imperialist leadership of the capitalist world that the US took over from England after the Second World War. So, why and how did the US, which played the main role in getting Europe back on its feet with the famous Marshall Plan after the Second World War and took over the capitalist world leadership from England, drift into these situations these days? We can clarify the reasons for the US reaching such a fragile level by following the chain of events that occurred after the Second World War. After the Second World War, the US's transition to the political leadership of the capitalist world, and at the same time to global imperialist hegemony, began to weaken gradually with the spread of neoliberal policies. Because the implementation of globalization and financialization trends with full speed through neoliberal policies, especially in the period following the collapse of the Soviet Wall in 1989, led to a loss of investor capital in the US at a higher rate than all developed countries, while also causing a loss of employment opportunities and tax revenue in the country. Indeed, about 10-15 years ago, a strange piece of news hit the agenda that the US administration had shut down due to the Congress's lack of money. The reason for this was that the Congress, which could not collect taxes and had exceeded its debt limit, had become unable to make expenditures. While real investments scattered abroad led to employment problems at home, they could also carry US technology abroad, leading to technology sales and even theft. Such events occurring on a firm basis had begun to harm the US's global imperialist hegemony. Thus, the purpose of customs duties applied and/or designed at different rates for different countries is, on one hand, to create a protective shield for firms within the US against foreign competition to grow domestic production, and on the other hand, to undermine the production of some countries by sabotaging their exports to the US.

The US is among the countries with a high current account deficit in the world at a rate of 3%. The US's current account deficit is not only related to commercial transactions but is also an indicator of the burden of being the world's policeman reflected in the economy. The US's effort to attract foreign investments into the country aims both to regulate the domestic economy in terms of employment and taxes, and to serve as a remedy for the current account deficit. The fact that the US can finance its current account deficit with its own national currency is not a huge advantage, because the borrowing incurred places a burden on the US Treasury, even if it is not higher than the Libor level.

The customs taxation system is not solely aimed at public revenue. Increasing customs duty rates, due to the reduction of imports, may be aimed more at increasing domestic production and/or attracting foreign investments that produce goods for the US into the country, and thereby increasing employment and tax revenues, rather than providing revenue to the public. In other words, the purpose of the customs duty operation is not to provide direct income, but to ensure the increase of tax revenues to be collected through domestic production by supporting domestic production in this way.

Trump's aggressive customs and country annexation project, which is far from common sense, cannot be seen as having the power to reshape the capitalist world, because beyond the aggression of the project, there is no deep-rooted production relationship context in favor of the US. However, these projects may even harm the US itself by triggering hostile attitudes and behaviors of non-US countries against the US. For example, China, by making useful investments with anti-imperialist policies towards developing countries under US hegemony, can pull countries under US hegemony to its side, reduce the US's area of dominance, and force the US to use more intense external force to regain the area and dominance. It can be thought that the protests of EU countries, Canada, and even South American countries against Trump's aggressive policies could intensify further. This situation could impose a higher cost on the US than it does today. The fact that European countries are planning a European army and the different protests displayed by Canada are signals against the US.

It can be thought that the US administration under Trump's dominance, with its possible internal and external effects, stems more from the anxiety of maintaining world dominance by using the US state over the potential foreign competitors of some large firms, rather than from prudent state management. In globalization policies, national governments are triggered to serve the interests of international capital at the expense of national settings. The reflections of this political development on the US during the Trump era can be interpreted as the US state not being the one spreading to a wider area in the world with Trump's policies, but rather the giant organizations within the US dominating the entire globe under state protection. The US's harsh attitude towards the outside world could lead the outside world to unite against the US and create large markets. This situation could weaken the US, which currently holds around 20% of world trade. Similarly, giant "cloud organizations" that have grown within the US and gained global dimensions could also be shaped outside the US. While this process could also occur through a natural action-reaction relationship, the US's attitude towards the outside world could accelerate the process. While China, which is increasing its technology level in a planned and programmed manner, is preparing to take the place of the US in the new world, Trump's attitude should be interpreted as reactive, not as a sound state policy.

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The date this article was written is March 18. This date takes us to the great war in 1915 and the glorious victory. At the hottest moment of the war, "a staff lieutenant colonel [Mustafa Kemal] who had no duty on the front line of the war, immediately grasped the danger and, without receiving orders from his superiors (because there was no time), swept back the Anzacs who had almost approached the hill with a counter-attack, which was very effective in determining not only the Gallipoli battles but also the future of Turkey." While commemorating the heroes who lost their lives on both fronts in this sacred war with gratitude and appreciation, I wanted to emphasize how vital sudden decisions are by overcoming hierarchical command stages in necessary conditions where time is very valuable, even in the military where discipline is essential. Military history, it is probable, is full of stories where meaningless conflicts were prevented by such sudden decisions. I leave those who blindly fed the recent incident involving lieutenants to the nation just to take the side of the government alone with their consciences!