Donald Trump was elected because of a mass desire to combat the liberal establishment; now that establishment seeks to partner with Trump in suppressing dissent. And Trump’s team is glad to collaborate in this task. Because for all the things that the different wings of our ruling class disagree on, their big points of agreement are in maintaining the colonial economic order, and crushing all domestic forces which threaten this order. The bipartisan plan is to increasingly criminalize pro-Palestine sentiment, and to instigate a proxy war with the chief threat towards imperial exploitation: China. The imperialists are desperate to avoid getting kicked out of Asia, so they’re expanding their genocide in west Asia while seeking a new big war in the far east. And the primary narrative tool that they’ll use to justify these crimes is the anti-woke psyop, where Palestine gets portrayed as a “woke” concern that’s stoked by Chinese interference.
The Trump faction and the liberal monopolist faction are increasingly at odds. And we’ll likely soon see them have a major confrontation over the foreign policy questions on which they diverge; the dominant wing of the security state seeks to prevent Tulsi Gabbard or Matt Gaetz from getting approved, because both these figures are against funding Ukraine. If they get their expected cabinet positions, though, the plan will be to use them for advancing the counterinsurgency in the United States.
Though they’re not ideal from the deep state’s perspective, their role within the discourse makes them useful to this task in certain ways. Like Trump, they’ve positioned themselves as fighters against wokeness. As leaders who can help defeat the arrogant liberal technocracy that’s obsessed with censorship, and that seeks to further degrow our economy in the name of “progress.” Because Gaetz and Gabbard oppose monopoly capital on certain issues, their participation in the campaign to silence dissent will be easier to ignore; and the conservatives who’ve been misled about Palestine will assume they’re simply going after terrorists.
This is the view the deep state aims to propagate as our government advances its plans for deporting pro-Palestine foreign students, and for classifying pro-Palestine groups as terrorist organizations. Our ruling class needs people to remain unaware that Palestine is a country fighting for its freedom, and think of “Palestinian” as a synonym for “terrorist.” The goal is to convince the MAGA base that the pro-Palestine movement is nothing more than a scam financed by the liberal monopolists, like the Black Lives Matter organization was. This is the only way that the Trump White House’s perpetuation of the war machine, and violations of constitutional liberties, can be seen as things which help the anti-monopoly cause. It’s how Palestine can be framed as a culture war issue, when in reality it’s a struggle that transcends left or right; that transcends all divisions among humanity. The Palestine question is a simple matter of whether every person deserves to live and be free; but the empire’s propagandists are constantly working to obscure this.
Most of the USA’s people have already realized that the military action in Gaza is not justified, which places the solid supporters of the “Israeli” Nazi entity in the minority; though most don’t yet understand the military action is a genocide, they see that it’s wrong. There’s even a strong element of anti-Zionist sentiment on the right, one that could grow bigger. This is why in addition to the psyops which paint “Israel” as a righteous force that’s “only defending itself,” there are psyops which try to divert anti-Zionist sentiments towards “Jewish question” conspiracy thinking. This is the discourse role that Gaetz fills, despite his voting record showing almost fully consistent support for “Israel.” He’s the type of pro-Zionist who does things like promote Holocaust deniers, and say the Jews killed Jesus; which benefits “Israel” in an indirect way, because Zionism’s “Jews are only safe in Israel” argument has always depended on anti-Jewish bigotry.
The narrative managers can work with these things; they can nurture the most reactionary aspects of the Trump White House, using them to undermine and repress the pro-Palestine movement. If approved, Gabbard will be the Director of National Intelligence, which is a job that involves giving intel briefings to the president; and Gabbard’s idea about the Gaza protesters being radical Islamist puppets makes her inclined to believe false terrorism accusations against Palestine supporters. Gaetz has been picked as Attorney General, meaning he would be in place to shape the law towards further criminalizing dissent. The security state wishes that these figures shared the Atlanticist worldview; but should they get such governmental positions, there will be a plan ready to sway them towards assisting in the domestic purge.
This is the possibility that we need to prepare for: figures on the right who’ve tactically benefited us in the anti-NATO struggle taking on highly damaging roles, and facilitating the persecution of anti-imperialists. They’ll also absolutely advance the war against China. The Palestine question was always going to come to the forefront, and now that it has, it could bring about a major betrayal from those who’ve opposed NATO while still backing “Israel.”
Then there’s the effect that Trump’s loyalty to “Israel” will have on his wider foreign policy. Will Trump’s White House truly de-escalate in Ukraine and Korea, like Trump has said he will? It depends on where the balance of forces will be during his presidency. At this moment, they’re not at a place that’s conducive to peace within these places. The Trump team’s “peace” proposal towards Russia consists of a request for Russia to stop making any further progress in the war, letting the Kiev Banderite regime hold on to territories that Russia would liberate otherwise. This is the kind of plan someone creates when they just want to be able to say “I plan to bring peace.”
If Trump continues the escalations with Russia, it will be consistent with his Russia policies from last time; the only country that he de-escalated with in his first term was the DPRK, which is why there’s at least a better chance of peace in Korea. All the other parts of Trump’s foreign policy could undermine this, though. Will Trump be able to make friends with the DPRK while he’s intensifying the genocide against Palestine, continuing to treat Russia as an enemy, and acting more aggressively towards China than ever? Ukraine and October 7 have made the world even more geopolitically polarized than it was during Trump’s first term; and on every active front in our geopolitical conflict, the DPRK is on the opposite side of Trump. On top of this, Trump is now hoping to create another direct military confrontation in Taiwan, right to the DPRK’s south.
My concern is not that Trump will bring fatal destruction upon China, because China is even better prepared to win a proxy war than Russia was. Given China’s overwhelming strength, it even has a good chance of successfully deterring Washington. My primary concern is that the empire will manage to murder hundreds of thousands more Palestinians, and from this comes my second biggest concern: that our imperial state will crush the domestic anti-imperialist movement. To win our fight, and thereby let the Palestinians win their fight faster, we need to account for the reality that extreme repression is imminent. Even as the conflicts within the ruling class intensify, the counterinsurgency is going to turn increasingly aggressive and deadly. We’ll be able to take advantage of these divisions, and the related mass discontent, if we can ensure our organizations survive what’s coming.
————————————————————————
If you appreciate my work, I hope you become a one-time or regular donor to my Patreon account. Like most of us, I’m feeling the economic pressures amid late-stage capitalism, and I need money to keep fighting for a new system that works for all of us. Go to my Patreon here.
To keep this platform effective amid the censorship against dissenting voices, join my Telegram channel.
