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Why I Changed My Mind on Trump

by Jeffrey A. Tucker
5 November 2024 1:27 PM

Like many others, including J.D. Vance, I’m very much on record in warning about Donald Trump from 2015 onward, including articles and an entire book (which is still valuable) on the Rightist version of collectivism.

As we approach election day, my opinions have undergone a shift, particularly in the last three years watching as Biden/Harris marshalled a massive ruling class propaganda and compulsion machine to push everything I oppose the most: state consolidation, corporatism, censorship, inflationism, central planning and compulsory injections of experimental medical products.

It all seems surreal to me. I think back to what worried me the most about Trump: demagogic nationalism, nativistic protectionism, executive centralisation and the leadership cult. Features of his last term confirmed my worst fears, particularly his green lighting of lockdowns for Covid and disregard for religious and personal freedom in the period. He also has a terrible record on spending, mitigated in part by solid efforts toward deregulation and higher quality picks on the bench.

To my amazement, when Trump realised he was wrong on Covid controls and began to argue for opening up again, he was denounced by the whole of the political opposition! Then once he was out of office, everything became vastly worse, including mask mandates, forced closures and finally the unconscionable forced shots that have not only killed and wounded many but demoralised and subjugated the population in ways that can only be compared with wartime conscription.

As regards Trump himself, what we’ve seen emerge since then is a changed man in many ways, or so it seems. He has new appreciation for the wicked power of the deep state and the toxicity of lawfare of which he is a main victim. The kinds of people he has gathered around him, including RFK Jr. and Elon, is also encouraging.

At the same time, I’ve changed too on many topics on which I thought I had settled opinions.

On nationalism, I had never imagined the conditions in which that impulse would favour rather than oppose liberty, and amount to a form of decentralisation from what is called globalism. The Covid response was largely dictated (from February 26th 2020) by the World Health Organisation, which is mostly funded privately as a corporatist racket pushing pharmaceutical products. This is why the Covid response was the same the world over (but for three nations). Even the CDC claimed to defer.

And that’s just the start of it. It’s true for censorship and financial power too: both are global initiatives pushed by corporate elites, as we see in Europe. The treatment of Elon Musk for daring to permit speech is indicative: they really want to turn the internet into a curated information machine controlled only by stakeholders. I’m not making this up. This is what they say!

Indeed, the problem is even deeper. There is a machine being built globally that necessarily disenfranchises voters the world over. Once they have power, democracy is at an effective end, which means that citizens no longer have any possibility of influencing the shape of the regime under which they live.

Nationalism in this case means taking back power from usurpers. (Generally speaking, as I’ve long written, whether nationalism is good or bad for liberty depends on circumstances of time and place.)

On the matter of immigration, I never imagined that I lived under a regime that would deploy the free movement of peoples as a weapon of vote manipulation and power consolidation. Voters in the U.K. saw it, and Murray Rothbard saw it as a possibility as early as 1993 but I couldn’t imagine it.

I was wrong. It became our reality. The liberal and broad-minded impulse to welcome strangers has been weaponised as a vote-getting scheme operated at taxpayer expense. This has nothing to do with freedom and everything to do with the aspiration for a one-party state and premeditated demographic upheaval to break up opposition to state consolidation.

On matters of trade, I’m with Rand Paul in opposing tariffs as industrial protection. That said, the loss of domestic manufacturing is driven in part by a bad monetary system that broke all monetary settlement mechanisms that had smoothed trade in the 19th century and replaced it with a one-way industrial policy that came at the expense of the citizenry.

It has become clear, in addition, that the longing for a system of fiscal financing via tariffs rather than income taxes is on the table, as in the 19th century.  That would certainly amount to an improvement over the current system. If that kind of nostalgia drives Trump’s tariff push, there is some basis for it and not automatically a form of what I feared the most.

The number one shift I’ve undergone in my thinking concerns the source of the real problem in the U.S. It is not the politicians elected by the voters as such but the permanent state structures that exist on three levels: shallow, middle and deep. The consciousness of this is as new as it is ominous.

The deep state refers to the intelligence community which very obviously exercises massive power not only internationally but domestically as well. I’m not sure I was fully aware of that.

The middle state is the civilian bureaucracy, some two million strong plus 400 agencies that imagine that they are the real and permanent rulers of America.

The shallow state is the retail end of this machine: the media, the medical systems, the tech companies and the corporate structure itself whether it controls advertising or philanthropy or banking or financial markets. The corruption is deep and wide.

There is only one way to break up this wicked cartel: with executive, legislative and judicial action. The Trump forces have a bead on this, in part because his last term was utterly foiled by this machinery.

We’ve never had an incoming administration so finely focused on the real problems and floating real solutions to actually save freedom in this generation from utter destruction.

Of course it might not go well: usually politics betrays us. But this much I know: we cannot endure four more years of where things are headed now. Everything we love is being lost.

Most Americans have a simple demand: we want our lives back. It’s that simple. We don’t even need to take recourse to far-flung ideological precepts to understand it. We need only draw on moral intuition and what we remember (if we can) of what normal life should be like.

Jeffrey A. Tucker is founder and President of the Brownstone Institute. This article was first published on X.

Tags: 2024 U.S. ElectionCensorshipCensorship-Industrial ComplexDeep StateDemocracyDonald TrumpFree Speech

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30 Comments
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JohnK
JohnK
6 months ago

Considering the allocation of levels – deep, middle, and shallow – are the medical, & tech (incorporating engineering) organisations really shallow? Or are they actually deep in many cases? After all, most of them really supersede democracy altogether. Most people just live with them with no thought at all, in the main. In this context, the “deep state” is global, in effect, with the USA being down the pyramid a bit.

6
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Ron Smith
Ron Smith
6 months ago

“unconscionable forced shots that have not only killed and wounded many but demoralised and subjugated the population”

One bit of good news regarding that is the ‘uptake’ in all vaccines is down, making it harder when they next take orders from the WHO & IHR fascism.

13
0
JohnK
JohnK
6 months ago
Reply to  Ron Smith

What a surprise. Maybe they are not so good at marketing as some supposed. But yes, it is possible that the tactic used will have a negative effect.

3
0
Curio
Curio
6 months ago

It’s too late.
Even if Trump wins, he’ll be lucky to make it to the January 2025 inauguration. Even as a President he’ll be “minded” by reps of all three levels, who have infiltrated the fake Republican Party.

7
-2
JXB
JXB
6 months ago
Reply to  Curio

And they’ve had two strikes at him already, a third might do it.

3
0
NeilParkin
NeilParkin
6 months ago
Reply to  JXB

If they have a go, it will be a bomb. I pray they are unsuccessful.

4
0
RTSC
RTSC
6 months ago
Reply to  Curio

Take him out …. and they’ll get Vance.

1
0
Ron Smith
Ron Smith
6 months ago

“information machine controlled only by stakeholders. I’m not making this up. This is what they say!”

I know you’re not….”We own the science and I think they should know it”…WEF. The arrogance knows no bounds. The Free World rests on Trump!

6
0
Ron Smith
Ron Smith
6 months ago

 It is not the politicians elected by the voters as such but the permanent state structures that exist on three levels: shallow, middle and deep.”

Why do you think the Dems kept FRK off the ballot, that’s why he joined Trump, other times they put him on a ballot when it would benefit the Dems where he would have to instruct them to remove his name. Ah democracy! 

2
0
Ron Smith
Ron Smith
6 months ago
Reply to  Ron Smith

RFK FFS!

0
0
Ron Smith
Ron Smith
6 months ago

“400 agencies that imagine that they are the real and permanent rulers of America.”

You mean like Whitehall

6
0
JohnK
JohnK
6 months ago
Reply to  Ron Smith

Yes, Minister.

3
0
Ron Smith
Ron Smith
6 months ago

“. We need only draw on moral intuition and what we remember (if we can) of what normal life should be like.” Yes in the old days we could plan our future!

5
0
JXB
JXB
6 months ago

“On nationalism, I had never imagined the conditions in which that impulse would favour rather than oppose liberty…”

Nationalism like racism and far right, have been defined by the Left to convey their desired meaning to support their arguments.

Nationalism the way they mean it is more properly defined as Statism, in the model of Mussolini, and Hitler’s National Socialism – therefore tyranny and dictatorship and must be stamped out. Ironic since the Left is itself a Statist, dictatorial machine.

A Nation is built by monocultural society – shared values, morals, beliefs, manners, laws – bound by the culture, heritage, history, wider family, solidarity, unity, patriotism. Nationalism seeks to preserve this. It’s about the people. That is why it is a threat to Statism and the Left who want to get rid of National identity, destroy the concept of self-government and replace it with a global technocratic government.

9
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Mogwai
Mogwai
6 months ago

He’s so got to win. The alternative is unthinkable, and I don’t even live in the States. I honestly cannot wait to see that maniacal, fake-ass smile wiped off that medicated muppet’s face, as well as all the rest of the Demtard globalist sh*tmunchers reactions before their tiny, toxic brains collectively implode as they try and fail to compute what just happened, with zero fraud or bribery required in order to get there. *Touch wood I’ve not just jinxed things!*
You don’t have to like him, but even with all his faults he’s the only real chance Americans have;

”We’re right on the cusp of – yes, it’s true and not just a hyperbolic cliché – the most consequential election of our time. What can you expect on November 5th – and then beyond?
First, the election itself. As things stand now, I personally do not see how Donald Trump can lose – even factoring in what will surely be widespread attempts at voter fraud including an unknown quantity of illegal aliens who have been registered to vote by the Democrats (which is precisely the reason, of course, that they threw open the southern border for four years). The Democrats know they’re going to lose, which is why activists have already started burning ballot boxes in Washington state and Oregon (and you can expect more ballot boxes in other states to begin meeting the same fate). I don’t see how the Democrats can even cheat their way to victory this time. We all know – and the Democrats especially are painfully aware – that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are a disastrous duo whom no one likes and they have run a terrible campaign that is floundering more and more each day.

Conversely, we also all know – and the Democrats especially are painfully aware – that Trump has been a rock star on the campaign trail and that YUGE crowds have come out for him everywhere. Kamala could only boost her crowds with a bait-and-switch, promising Beyoncé concerts that never materialized, for example. Kamala couldn’t even score a victory with a solo CNN town hall; CNN commentators afterward couldn’t cover for her disastrous performance. Her entire campaign has been based on lies and fear-mongering about fascism and democracy because she’s incapable of talking policy or differentiating herself from the decrepit, deposed Joe Biden.

If Kamala “wins,” her presidency will be the most radical in American history. It’s easy and tempting to dismiss her as an epically incompetent dim bulb, because that’s what she is. It’s easy and tempting to mock her pompous word salads, her nervous cackling, her Meryl Streep-level range of accents when addressing different demographics, but remember that she is also ruthless, ambitious, and cruel, and she enjoys destroying lives through political power. With her in the White House we can expect four years of vindictiveness and retribution against political opponents, in addition to the most radical imaginable policies.”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/what-to-expect-this-election-and-beyond/

7
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MichaelM
MichaelM
6 months ago
Reply to  Mogwai

“You don’t have to like him, but even with all his faults he’s the only real chance Americans have”

I actually find him very likeable. He may be a bit narcissistic, but still only scores around a 3 on the Barack Obama scale of 10.

5
0
Ron Smith
Ron Smith
6 months ago
Reply to  MichaelM

And Obama is a prime example why people shouldn’t focus on the sex or the skin colour, only their policies.

3
0
Bill Hickling
Bill Hickling
6 months ago

Thank you Sir. This is why I subscribe to the DS.

4
0
Sue
Sue
6 months ago
Reply to  Bill Hickling

It is one of the most balanced and considered articles that I have so far encountered on this matter. The Brownstone website which the writer established has many intelligent articles, often including British orientated opinion and information. The link given by Mogwai below is worth reading in its entirety.
https://brownstone.org/

4
0
JXB
JXB
6 months ago

“It has become clear, in addition, that the longing for a system of fiscal financing via tariffs rather than income taxes is on the table, as in the 19th century. That would certainly amount to an improvement over the current system.”

Really? Yet it was removal of tariffs and introduction of free trade that saw a huge surge in the British Economy and at that time there was no income tax so it wasn’t either/or.

Do people promoting tariffs really nto understand they are a tax on consumers? Paid by the importer and passed on and compounded through the supply chain, they increase consumer prices = less goods bought = less manufacture needed = fewer jobs needed = unemployment = reduction in economic activity = everyone made poorer.

Domestic manufacturing has not been lost, it has changed. We manufacture as much as we did 50 years ago just different things. Fewer people are engaged in it which is down to increased labour productivity which means higher wages.

The real problem is as the article states, a shift from productive to non-productive activity mostly in the public sector, which means more and more capital, labour and other resources are not available for development of the private sector hampered by the deadweight of taxation to pay for the non-producers. And now floods of non-productive, impoverished immigrants.

Tariffs are not the answer.

3
0
NeilParkin
NeilParkin
6 months ago
Reply to  JXB

To be fair, when there was a huge surge in the British Economy from free trade, we didn’t have a great deal of international competition, certainly not what we have now. We have seen various foreign governments try to subsidise their industry by undercutting and product dumping, in which case some protectionism would be an obvious answer. If we all played by the rules then I agree, no tariffs.

4
0
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
6 months ago
Reply to  JXB

My instincts are towards free trade and it has shown itself to give great benefits. But what has come to bother me about it is that it creates a dependence on other countries. Steel, food, energy, semiconductors. Being dependent on other countries might be OK if they are equally dependent on you, or you can trust them not to shaft you or gang up on you because you step out of line. I don’t know what the answer is.

4
0
NeilParkin
NeilParkin
6 months ago

I was thinking about the whole situation in the US the other day and musing about the tremendous divisions between the left and right, and whether or not the answer might just be to have a partition of the country into two. Do we have two sides of the argument that are so incompatible that division and political independence is realistically the only solution..?

3
0
Tonka Rigger
Tonka Rigger
6 months ago
Reply to  NeilParkin

Such a situation would absolutely never happen, of course. Not just because of the obvious practical and constitutional hurdles, but also because the juxtaposition would expose the comparative failure of the Dem state very starkly indeed.

4
0
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
6 months ago
Reply to  NeilParkin

I felt like that during “covid”. Just give us a small country somewhere and leave us the hell alone, youse lot can all go bonkers together, good luck.

The US was founded with the idea that people would be left to live their lives as they best thought, within the law which was at the time confined to a tiny proportion of what it is today. But there’s no more land left to do it again – no land anyone would want to live on, anyway.

5
0
Ron Smith
Ron Smith
6 months ago
Reply to  NeilParkin

Maybe that is the reason for the Billionaires bunkers in places like Hawaii. Some could already be in them, just in case!

1
0
Jabby Mcstiff
Jabby Mcstiff
6 months ago

He is more beautiful than ever now in terms of his actual beauty and the beauty of his presence. The man is in his seventies and he has the energy of ten young bulls and apparently he subsists on cheeseburgers alone. And perhaps he has gained wisdom from his years in the wilderness He isn’t really a demagogue apart from a few stylistic touches. He never plays the hard man really. His tone is usually ironic or self-mocking. More of a demigod than demagogue. He is a mystery to himself in terms of how his mind works. The demons in charge like predictability and algorithmic thinking and so perhaps a practitioner of chaos magic can slow down the decline.

2
0
Jabby Mcstiff
Jabby Mcstiff
6 months ago

Today is a rebirth. It may only mean a fifty year reprieve from a precipitous decline but now that we have him I think that we have learned how to love him. And we know that feeding him love and adoration brings out the best in him. He offers himself up as the slain deity and the sacrificial lamb. Our last hope.

2
0
Jabby Mcstiff
Jabby Mcstiff
6 months ago

They’ve already said that they won’t let him take power even if he wins and that is the beauty of it because it means a rumpus will ensue. He will win and if they to block him they will make a grave mistake. He is no more of a humanitarian than they are but at least it will throw the Anglo-Americans off kilter for the next couple of months which is exactly where you want them.

1
0
RTSC
RTSC
6 months ago

I hope we’re now going to experience a battle between democratic, nationalistic capitalism in the USA the anti-democratic, bureaucratic corporatism being implemented in Europe.

Sadly, we’re trapped on the wrong side.

1
0

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