Socialize Trump and Musk’s assets

By Jon Hochschartner

Eventually, the current fascist moment will pass. Perhaps it will take two years. Perhaps it will take twenty. How long the moment lasts will be determined by the ferocity with which liberty-loving Americans fight the ongoing Republican power grab. But, at some point, this phony right-wing populism will exhaust itself.

When that day comes, Democrats must replace this vile outlook with a genuine, left-wing populism. We need a populism which doesn’t blame the weak and the marginalized for society’s ills. Because it’s not transgender people or immigrants who are causing the public economic pain. It’s the ultra rich.

After returning to power, in a demonstration of this new populist approach, Democrats should socialize the assets of President Donald Trump and his oligarch accomplice, Elon Musk. Maybe one or both of them will have died by then. That’s not a problem. The property can be recovered from the fascists’ heirs.

I’ll be honest. I’m fundamentally an egalitarian. The existence of billionaires in a country where people are struggling and in a world where people are starving is a moral affront to me. That said, there is a non-socialist case for confiscating the wealth of these right-wing gangsters who presently control the government.

I shudder to imagine the damage Trump and Musk will have done to our country and democratic system by the time they are finished. Some kind of punishment will be necessary. Taking away their grotesque fortunes is the very least Democrats could do. And just consider how that cash might benefit so many others.

Trump is reportedly worth almost $6 billion. Meanwhile, Musk, the richest man on Earth, is believed to be hoarding more than $421 billion. The amount of good those riches could do in this nation and around the globe is hard to overestimate. We could build new hospitals, schools, libraries, roads and bridges.

We could expand our social-safety net to better care for children, the disabled and elderly. We could provide free college tuition, forgive medical debts, or send out large stimulus checks. We could expand foreign aid to save countless lives amongst the poorest of the poor. We could invest in scientific development.

Animal welfare is a priority for me, so I’d love to see a portion of such funds go to cultivated-meat research. For those who don’t know, cultivated meat is grown from livestock cells, without slaughter. The revolutionary protein offers a number of environmental and public-health benefits as well.

The only limit to the variety of productive purposes — which we, as a society, could put Trump and Musk’s wealth — is our imagination. Socializing the assets of this pair would be the right course of action, regardless of their behavior. However, the duo’s fascist criminality should make it an easy call for Democrats.

In the here and now, we must stop Trump and Musk. But, in the aftermath, Democrats have to impose consequences of some sort. At the very minimum, these should include confiscation of the pair’s outrageous fortunes. We can build a better future. Money taken from fascist billionaires will help with this.

Jon Hochschartner lives in Connecticut. He is the author of a number of books, including The Animals’ Freedom Fighter: A Biography of Ronnie Lee, Founder of the Animal Liberation Front. Visit his blog at SlaughterFreeAmerica.Substack.com.