After former President Donald Trump was convicted on 34 criminal charges, the Heritage Foundation – a right-wing think tank that, among other things, produced the Project 2025 agenda, a blueprint for policies if Trump wins – flew the American flag upside down. , which has become emblematic of MAGA support in general and election denial in particular.
This move may have shocked some old-line conservatives who still think Warisan is a serious institution, but Warisan is, after all, just a think tank. It’s not like the upside-down flag is being flown by people we expect to defend our constitutional order, like Supreme Court justices.
Oh, wait.
But Warisan embraces what amounts to an attack on democracy as a useful symbol of one of the developments really bothering this election as it heads into the final stretch. Heritage presents itself as a defender of freedom, but its real mission has always been to produce arguments – often based on poor research – for low taxes on the rich. And the tacit endorsement of lawlessness reflects the way many American plutocrats – both in Silicon Valley and on Wall Street – have, after flirting with the candidacy of crank Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have been rallying around Trump.
Why do billionaires support Trump? It’s not as if he did anything bad on President Joe Biden. Stock prices — which Trump predicted would plummet if he lost in 2020 — rose. high interest rates, which is a burden on many Americans, if there is a net positive for rich people with money to invest. And I doubt that the superrich will suffer from higher prices for fast food.
Wealthy Americans, however, are betting they will pay lower taxes if Trump wins.
Biden and his team have given clear guidance on their tax agenda, which will directly raise taxes on high-income Americans and also raise corporate taxes, which will not directly tax the wealthy. These measures will not result in a tax on top comparable to what existed during the Eisenhower years, when the top marginal income tax rate was 91% and large estates could suffer an inheritance tax of up to 77%. However, Biden’s plan, if implemented, would make the rich less rich.
Trump has been vague, but clearly wants to retain the 2017 tax cuts in full, and his allies in Congress are committed to not only cutting taxes but also starving the IRS of resources, which would allow wealthier Americans to evade taxes. they are legally indebted.
So billionaires are not wrong to think they will pay lower taxes if Trump wins. But why aren’t they more concerned about the bigger picture?
After all, even if you only care about money, Trump’s agenda should worry you deeply. His advisor’s plan to deport millions of immigrants (who are supposed to be in the country illegally, but do you believe that many legal citizens won’t be caught in the net?) will deplete the US workforce and be deeply disruptive. His protectionist proposals (which are very different from the measures targeted by Biden) could mean an all-out global trade war. If they do well, the attack on the independence of the Federal Reserve risks inflation more seriously than anything we have experienced in recent years.
Beyond all that, Trump will almost certainly try to weaponize the justice system to go after his perceived enemies. Only a person ignorant of history would imagine themselves safe from such weapons – even if Trump considers you an ally now, that could change quickly.
And if you’ve been following Trump’s tweets, you know that his rhetoric is becoming less rational and more vindictive by the week. But his support among billionaires seems to consolidate him.
So what happened? Here’s what I think, although it’s completely speculative.
First, American oligarchs may believe that their wealth and influence will protect them from arbitrary power. Trump and company could be corrupt law enforcement and courts that scare people, but they are not! By the time they realize how wrong they are, it will be too late.
As I have written before, the superrich can be ignorant and ignorant of history.
Second, on some level I don’t think about money. How much difference would it make to a billionaire’s quality of life if he had to settle on a slightly smaller superyacht? At the top of the pyramid, wealth is largely about status and self-importance; as Tom Wolfe once wrote, it’s about “seeing him jump.”
And when politicians don’t jump, when they don’t treat the rich with the respect and admiration they deserve, some people get angry. We saw this when many Wall Streeters turned on President Barack Obama – after he helped them out of the financial crisis – because they felt insulted by his occasional criticism.
Biden is hardly a class warrior, but he clearly does not worship the superrich. And so many of them are rejecting Trump because they are so tired.
