Donald J. Trump's January 20

It is rare that we are aware that we are witnessing a moment that will change the course of history — the protagonists themselves are often unaware of it. Today we are witnessing one of these events. Most people — including the main actors of this change — have no idea what they are doing. They ignore, as if by a sort of trick of reason, that they serve as instruments of a fundamental historical dynamic.

January 20, 2025 will remain as a symbolic date: that of the end of neoliberal globalization.

Its two fundamental components have now disappeared: globalism has transformed into nationalism; neoliberalism now only applies to the economic sphere.

Its social components – equality between ethnic groups and sexes, free movement of labor, multiculturalism – are dead. All that remains are low taxes, deregulation and the cult of profit.

Donald Trump's worldview could be summarized by a series of points: profits, neo-mercantilism, American nationalism in a complex relationship with imperialism. Each of these individual elements can be easily defined. None of them are new or unknown. However, as is often the case with major turning points, it is only when brought together that these worldviews define a new ideology.

We don't know his name yet. What we do know, however, is that it represents a break with the ideology that has reigned since the 1980s, and certainly since the early 1990s, until today.

Trump himself has benefited greatly from neoliberal globalization. By his interests, his age and his nationality, he participated fully and benefited immensely from it. But for reasons that probably had more to do with vanity than ideology, he decided to challenge it—he probably didn't expect to succeed.

However, eight years after his first presidential victory, totally unexpected, and after four years of crossing the desert, besieged by trials, the pressure of hostile media, two assassination attempts, the endless revelations of bestsellers, the judges , investigations, false friends, “ golden showers » and accusations of treason, he is back in the White House with 77 million votes, a victory in the popular vote and in the Electoral College.

No one, including himself, knows where this amalgamation of ideas he has developed will take the United States, the West, and the world. In a few years, we will perhaps detect their logic. Elon Musk is the best representative. It calls for the creation of a global elite, ideologically, emotionally and psychologically detached from nationalism, but using it for political purposes to appease the lower classes.

We can call this movement “globalized Caesarism”: the system that Trump and Musk are building claims to belong to the lower classes, collects their votes, pays their credit card bills, but gives them low-paying jobs and ignores them as active participants in politics — except every four years.

Trump and Musk are doing the same thing as traditional Democrats and Republicans but because their cynicism is a new kind, it is less obvious, less frowned upon and more crude.

Through its apparent spontaneity and freshness, it breaks with the ideology that reigned supreme for forty years: that of the stringy reign of plutocrats who posed as fighters in the fight against poverty.

Neoliberalism was not an ideology steeped in blood and soil — but it caused a lot of deaths.

He leaves behind a scent of lies and dishonesty.

Rarely has an ideology been so deceitful: it called for equality while generating increases in inequality unprecedented in history; it called for democracy while sowing anarchy, discord and chaos; it rose against the ruling classes while creating a new aristocracy of wealth and power; she called for rules while breaking them all; it financed a system of Byzantine mandarinship which attempted to turn half-lies into truths.

It ends today, January 20, 2025.