Class war: How Trump helps the rich and hurts everyone else episode artwork

EPISODE · Mar 26, 2025 · 58 MIN

Class war: How Trump helps the rich and hurts everyone else

from Geopolitical Economy Report · host Ben Norton

Donald Trump is portrayed as a "populist" committed to average working-class people, but his policies benefit wealthy elites at the expense of everyone else. His administration includes 13 billionaires -- including Elon Musk, the world's richest oligarch -- and he is cutting taxes on the rich and corporations while imposing a consumption tax on the poor through tariffs. Ben Norton explains how Trump is waging a class war. VIDEO with charts here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL8cg-wWBO8 Check out our related video on JD Vance's speech on reindustrializing the US: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywmpea6vvOE Why Donald Trump won the US election: https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2024/11/08/donald-trump-us-election-kamala-harris-economy/ Topics 0:00 Intro 0:09 (CLIP) Trump at McDonald's 0:33 Billionaires in Trump admin 1:36 Big Tech oligarchs 2:36 Corruption and bribery 3:17 Trump meme coin 4:20 Tax cuts for the rich 5:20 Tariffs are a tax 6:45 Trump's tax law benefited rich 8:25 Billionaires avoid taxes 10:01 Historical tax rates 11:44 Corporate tax rate 12:50 Progressive taxation 15:02 Why Trump won: inflation 16:43 Election turnout 18:02 Trump's low approval rating 20:20 Why people are angry 21:03 (CLIP) Obama on Wall Street 21:19 BlackRock CEO 21:48 Elon Musk 22:12 (CLIP) Trump on Tesla 22:21 US economy relies on rich 24:05 Unemployment rate is misleading 25:36 Stagnant real wages 29:34 Inflation is sticky 30:31 No more cheap goods 31:14 Scott Bessent & George Soros 33:25 (CLIP) Scott Bessent on American Dream 33:40 Cheap goods & China 36:51 Tariffs & reindustrialization 38:22 Myth of American Dream 40:07 US life expectancy is falling 41:17 Scapegoating 43:37 Recession warnings 45:01 Housing 47:02 Elon Musk buys White House position 47:35 Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman 48:34 Trump's fake "populism" 49:22 Hopeful examples 50:15 Mexico: AMLO 51:43 Mexico: Claudia Sheinbaum 53:11 Learning from Mexico 54:50 China's poverty reduction 57:54 US oligarchy 58:37 Outro

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