Naked Capitalism

There is lots of liberal punditry scoffing at how "transactional" Donald Trump is. In their telling, a more measured, sober, capitalist statesman is supposed to show concern for other values besides crass accumulation. Yes, past leaders made financial deals but they left the details, the sausage making, to trade representatives, minor bureaucrats who dealt behind closed doors. But it was always artifice, a pretense of civility. Now all those atmospherics are out the door. Now the bloody, smelly sausage ingredients are the whole point. Missels for cash. we'll trade tanks for oil. Liberals wanted to pretend the state and the Market existed in separate spheres. That lie is now exposed. The State and the Market are one. At this grotesque stage of late capitalism everything exists in the economic register. And that act of sublimation is celebrated by the braying masses.As Wendy Brown wrote prior to the Donald ascending the throne, the demos disintegrates into bits of human capital; concerns with justice cede to the mandates of growth rates, credit ratings and investment climates; equality dissolves into market competition. It's ideology all the way down. As Donald tours the gilded palaces of the Middle East, making deals with oil-soaked dictators, we witness "transactional" in all its naked glory. Indeed, capitalism's full-specrum dominance is on full display. All the tired rhetoric about democracy, freedom and human rights is exposed for the bullshit it always was. And much to the dismay of those same liberal pundits, Americans love it. Just bring us the treats and all is forgiven. 9/11? Whatever. The treatment of women and foreign workers and dissidents? Whatever. Give us the trillion dollar deal and we can believe everything will be great again. Just like it never was! It should also be clear to everyone that hydrocarbons rule. In a recent Truth social post, Trump said this about drilling for oil in the North Sea versus building wind farms: “U.K.’s Energy Costs would go WAY DOWN, and fast.” And he is correct. In capitalism, the "costs" of destroying the biosphere are externalized, dissapeared. Trump exists to generate profit, no matter the "costs". You could ask the AI chat bot how wise it is to burn coal to power the data centers that run the AI and it will whisper: "not very."