>>2398952The reemergence of the Epstein case reveals deep fissures within Trump’s supposedly unshakeable “base,” as fascists like Steve Bannon and Alex Jones first denounced Attorney General Pam Bondi, then reversed themselves abruptly at Trump’s command. Among the millions who voted for Trump, out of anger over the economic hardship brought on by the pro-business policies of the Biden administration, the Epstein affair only deepens their disgust with all of capitalist politics.
These shifts demonstrate how false the corporate media and Democratic Party narrative of Trump’s political invincibility is. The truth is that Trump is widely hated, and that tens of millions despise his policies, particularly in persecuting immigrants and attacking democratic rights and social benefits. They have made their feelings known in some of the largest protests in American history. The most recent public opinion poll records his approval rating at just 42 percent.
Trump only appears “strong” in comparison to the political eunuchs in the Democratic Party, whose cowardice enrages those who wish to fight back against Trump and fascism. The mass anti-Trump sentiment finds no expression within the Democratic Party. On the contrary, the Democratic Party, and the trade unions and pseudo-left political figures who prop it up, are Trump’s main line of defense.
There is another similarity between the Stavisky and Profumo affairs and the current scandal over Jeffrey Epstein. All of them were or are connected with deepening social tensions, simmering just beneath the surface, and soon to erupt—in the class battles of the 1930s, the mass radicalization of the 1960s, and now the political explosions which are on the agenda in the second half of the 2020s.
Driving these struggles are far more profound issues than the corruption of Trump and the entire ruling elite, however much that provokes mass outrage. Inflation continues to tear at the living standards of the masses, even as social infrastructure is systematically smashed up by budget cuts and mass layoffs in Washington. For the vast majority, conditions of life have become increasingly impossible.
Trump exploited illusions and discontent to return to power in the 2024 elections, with the indispensable assistance of the Democrats. But sooner or later, like any con man, the day of reckoning comes. Now he seeks to ride out the crisis, while seeking support among his opponents in the ruling elite, through foreign policy initiatives like resuming arms shipments to Ukraine.
The working class cannot simply sit back and allow the crisis to develop. This would mean allowing the ruling class to sort things out, in a way that meets their interests, with or without Trump. That is the road offered by the Democratic Party and its allies and apologists.
The critical first step is to develop the class struggle and make it the basis for the independent intervention of the working class into political life. This means breaking out of the straitjacket of the unions through the building of rank-and-file workplace and neighborhood committees that will take up the immediate tasks of defense of the democratic rights and economic interests of working people.
The development of the class struggle must be connected to an international political struggle for socialism. If Trump is the embodiment of the criminal oligarchy, the face of the political underworld now in power, the mass opposition from below is the face of the future, the coming mass struggles of the working class against the financial aristocracy and its defenders. Victory in these struggles requires the development of a conscious revolutionary leadership of the working class, the Socialist Equality Party.