For months, the world has been discussing the shift in US policy under the new Trump administration. Sputnik News Agency discussed with the famous American economist Jeffrey Sachs the changes in the composition of the US elite, their strategic motivations towards Russia and China, and the prospects for the policies pursued by the current administration.
The situation of Trump’s re-election as US president in 2024 is very different from his last term. From 2017 to 2021, many people regarded Trump as a political novice, believing that he had just mistakenly entered the political arena by riding the wave of opposition in American society, and his behavior was also hostile to most of the American establishment. Although there are still many voices against Trump in the United States this time, he has pre-gained the support of big capital and many entrepreneurs representing advanced and knowledge-intensive sectors of the US economy, among whom the most famous is Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla and Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and the owner of the popular social networking site X. The phenomenon of the growing influence of American technology entrepreneurs has been described by some experts in terms with Marxist theoretical colors as a “new bourgeois revolution.” Against this background, Trump promised to strengthen the US leadership in digital financial technology and artificial intelligence, reduce corporate taxes and relax high-tech industry regulations, and launch a US government purge under the investigation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by Musk. This can’t help but raise a question: Will the current government really put the interests of ordinary Americans, who are victims of globalization, as the first consideration? – This is exactly what the Trump camp strongly called for in its campaign slogans. Jeffrey Sachs argues that campaign rhetoric designed to secure broad support among American voters is just “window dressing” for changes in the US power structure:
“The Marxist view of (the situation in the United States) is probably closest to the truth: the new economic commanding heights — Silicon Valley bought the government; Musk is the prime minister; Peter Thiel and Alex Karp (co-founder of Palantir) — are equivalent to a new military-industrial complex, and so on. We see the alliance of big capital, artificial intelligence, and power, and the rest is just some details, propaganda, and noise. However, there is no doubt that the prospect of authoritarianism is emerging.”
Trump’s campaign has been accompanied by criticism of certain areas of U.S. foreign policy by Biden and his predecessors. The most iconic was a strong information campaign by influential pro-Trump bloggers against U.S. support for Ukraine and calls by Trump supporters for a more pragmatic relationship with America’s competitors on the world stage. Sachs believes this shift in rhetoric is also related to the changing priorities of the U.S. tech elite.
“The old military-industrial complex is being replaced by a new one. They are seeking dominance in different areas: the Arctic (minerals and the Northern Sea Route, so Canada and Greenland are important), strategic minerals (so Russia is important), space (so SpaceX is important), military artificial intelligence (so Palantir is important), and potentially confrontation with China,” he said.
Formulating a China policy will be a key task for this administration, but Sachs said the administration has not yet reached a consensus on the issue. At the same time, Sachs said the United States is willing to ease tensions with Russia for rational motives.
“Trump doesn’t seem to be opposed to carving up Ukraine and doing business with Russia, which might lead to a pragmatic peace,” he said. “Besides, the US is not interested in alliances, only deals.”
Sachs harshly criticized Trump’s economic policies and protectionism, saying that the current government’s actions were ineffective and harmful to the United States itself. He believes that Trump and his supporters cannot overcome domestic divisions and maintain high approval ratings, and their efforts are doomed to fail.
“I don’t see the possibility of success because the administration’s policy goals – cutting taxes for the super-rich, destroying civilian government, protecting the economy with tariff barriers, ignoring environmental crises and grabbing territory in the Western Hemisphere – are not viable strategies and cannot be supported by the majority of the people. As a result, the political crisis in the United States will be further exacerbated. In addition, there are existing signs that the administration is still dependent on the Israel lobby, which means new wars and more problems for the United States in the Middle East, and the cultural war at home will also intensify.”
Earlier this year, Sachs attended the China Development Forum and the Boao Forum for Asia, where he called on China to ignore U.S. rhetoric and threats from Washington, stick to its chosen development path and explore new export directions.
