MAGA's Maoist streak tests America's capitalist identity

President Trump's grand economic vision relies on a simple tradeoff: that Americans will accept short-term personal sacrifice — higher prices, fewer options, slimmer profits — in service of long-term national strength.Why it matters: Trump is breaking sharply from free-market orthodoxy in his second term, blending bursts of anti-capitalism with a top-down, nationalist agenda for American dominance.Critics on the left and right warn of an emerging "MAGA Maoism" — a movement that demands ideological purity, glorifies economic sacrifice, and embraces state power as a means to reshape society.Trump's strongman instincts — and his deep skepticism of cultural elites and bureaucrats — have only intensified the provocative comparisons to China's revolutionary leader.What they're saying: "MAGA Maoism is spreading through the populist right," former congressional speechwriter Rotimi Adeoye wrote for The Washington Post last month.James Surowiecki, the first journalist to deduce that the White House used trade deficits to calculate its reciprocal tariffs, argued Monday that Trumpism is "becoming perversely, farcically Maoist."Drew Pavlou, an Australian anti-communism activist, wrote on Substack that "the entire world is now held hostage to Trump and his primitive, strangely Maoist worldview."Reality check: Trump's worldview is driven not by Marxist theory, but by a deeply held belief that America has been getting ripped off for decades.He's constrained by the rule of law, unlike China's totalitarian state — and there's no comparison to the mass death and violence committed by Mao's communist regime.Plus, much of Trump's agenda remains pro-capitalist: He champions private industry, not state ownership, and his appeals to sacrifice are rooted in geopolitical competition — not class struggle.White House spokesman Kush Desai told Axios in a statement: "The Trump administration's policies are delivering much-needed economic relief for everyday Americans while laying the groundwork for a long-term restoration of American Greatness."But listen to recent rhetoric from Trump and his top advisers, and it's clear why the analogy has gained traction."We are a department store, and we set the price," Trump told TIME when asked about tariff rates. "I meet with the companies, and then I set a fair price ... and they can pay it, or they don't have to pay it.""Maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls. And maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more," Trump mused last week when discussing potential supply shortages.In an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press," Trump said he'll personally call CEOs who make business decisions — such as advertising price increases from tariffs — that are "wrong" or "hurtful to the country."The intrigue: The MAGA movement sees industrial labor as the backbone of American identity, and is pursuing a vision steeped in nostalgia and nationalism."This is the new model where you work in these kinds of plants for the rest of your life, and your kids work here and your grandkids work here," Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CNBC.Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wrote in The Wall Street Journal: "Mr. Trump intends to usher in the most prosperous decade in American history — but not at the cost of the spiritual degradation of the working class," Bessent even suggested on a podcast that fired federal workers could help supply "the labor we need for new manufacturing" — drawing comparisons to Mao's policy of relocating urban elites to rural areas for "re-education."The big picture: Trump's embrace of centralized economic power is just one piece of a broader governing style that borrows heavily from strongman traditions.Ritualistic praise: Trump's televised Cabinet meetings always begin with his secretaries showering him in praise — casting the president as the only leader capable of restoring America's greatness.Loyalty tests: Trump and his aides have carried out mass purges of career officials deemed insufficiently loyal, including at the Justice Department, the Pentagon and the U.S. intelligence community.Civil society: Trump has sought retribution against the media, law firms, NGOs, and political opponents. Some Chinese see echoes of the Cultural Revolution, when nearly all of society's institutions were destroyed.War on academia: The Trump administration has cracked down on dozens of universities over alleged antisemitism and DEI programs, moving to weaken elite liberal institutions seen as hostile to MAGA.Military spectacle: The Pentagon plans to host a massive military parade — featuring 6,600 soldiers, 150 vehicles and 50 helicopters — on Trump's birthday in June, which coincides with the Army's 250th anniversary. The bottom line: There will be no communist revolution under Trump. But his second-term style reflects ideas the U.S. has long fought against — now reframed in nationalist terms.

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