I found this article quite enlightening, thought others might too...



The Power Elite in the Time of Trump


In the last few months, several competing political, economic and military sectors linked to distinct ideological and ethnic groups have clearly emerged at the centers of power.

We can identify some of the key competing and interlocking directorates of the power elite:

1. Free marketers, with the ubiquitous presence of the 'Israel First' crowd.

2. National capitalists, linked to rightwing ideologues.

3. Generals, linked to the national security and the Pentagon apparatus, as well as defense industry.

4. Business elites, linked to global capital.

This essay attempts to define the power wielders and evaluate their range of power and its impact.

The Economic Power Elite: Israel-Firsters and Wall Street CEO's

'Israel Firsters' dominate the top economic and political positions within the Trump regime and, interestingly, are among the Administration's most vociferous opponents. These include: the Federal Reserve Chairwoman, Janet Yellen, as well as her Vice-Chair, Stanley Fischer, an Israeli citizen and former (sic) Governor of the Bank of Israel.

Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law and an Orthodox Jew, acts as his top adviser on Middle East Affairs. Kushner, a New Jersey real estate mogul, set himself up as the archenemy of the economic nationalists in the Trump inner circle. He supports every Israeli power and land grab in the Middle East and works closely with David Friedman, US Ambassador to Israel (and fanatical supporter of the illegal Jewish settlements) and Jason Greenblatt, Special Representative for International negotiations. With three Israel-Firsters determining Middle East policy, there is not even a fig leaf of balance.

The Treasury Secretary is Steven Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs executive, who leads the neo-liberal free market wing of the Wall Street sector within the Trump regime. Gary Cohn, a longtime Wall Street influential, heads the National Economic Council. They form the core business advisers and lead the neo-liberal anti-nationalist Trump coalition committed to undermining economic nationalist policies.

An influential voice in the Attorney General's office is Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Robert Mueller the chief investigator, which led to the removal of nationalists from the Trump Administration.

The fairy godfather of the anti-nationalist Mnuchin-Cohn team is Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sach's Chairman. The 'Three Israel First bankerteers' are spearheading the fight to deregulate the banking sector, which had ravaged the economy, leading to the 2008 collapse and foreclosure of millions of American homeowners and businesses.

The 'Israel-First' free market elite is spread across the entire ruling political spectrum, including ranking Democrats in Congress, led by Senate Minority leader Charles Schumer and the Democratic Head of the House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff. The Democratic Party Israel Firsters have allied with their free market brethren in pushing for investigations and mass media campaigns against Trump's economic nationalist supporters and their eventual purge from the administration.

The Military Power Elite: The Generals

The military power elite has successfully taken over from the elected president in major decision-making. Where once the war powers rested with the President and the Congress, today a collection of fanatical militarists make and execute military policy, decide war zones and push for greater militarization of domestic policing. Trump has turned crucial decisions over to those he fondly calls 'my Generals' as he continues to dodge accusations of corruption and racism.

Trump appointed Four-Star General James 'Mad Dog' Mattis (retired USMC) a general who led the war in Afghanistan and Iraq as Secretary of Defense. Mattis (whose military 'glories' included bombing a large wedding party in Iraq) is leading the campaign to escalate US military intervention in Afghanistan a war and occupation that Trump had openly condemned during his campaign. As Defense Secretary, General 'Mad Dog' pushed the under-enthusiastic Trump to announce an increase in US ground troops and air attacks throughout Afghanistan. True to his much-publicized nom-de-guerre, the general is a rabid advocate for a nuclear attack against North Korea.

Lieutenant General H. R. McMaster (an active duty Three Star General and long time proponent of expanding the wars in the Middle East and Afghanistan) became National Security Adviser after the purge of Trump's ally Lt. General Michael Flynn, who opposed the campaign of confrontation and sanctions against Russia and China. McMaster has been instrumental in removing 'nationalists' from Trumps administration and joins General 'Mad Dog' Mattis in pushing for a greater build-up of US troops in Afghanistan.

Lt. General John Kelly (Retired USMC), another Iraq war veteran and Middle East regime change enthusiast, was appointed White House Chief of Staff after the ouster of Reince Priebus.

The Administration's Troika of three generals share with the neoliberal Israel First Senior Advisors to Trump, Stephen Miller and Jared Kushner, a deep hostility toward Iran and fully endorse Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's demand that the 2015 Nuclear Accord with Tehran be scrapped.

Trump's military directorate guarantees that spending for overseas wars will not be affected by budget cuts, recessions or even national disasters.

The 'Generals', the Israel First free marketers and the Democratic Party elite lead the fight against the economic nationalists and have succeeded in ensuring that Obama Era military and economic empire building would remain in place and even expand.

The Economic Nationalist Elite

The leading strategist and ideologue of Trump's economic nationalist allies in the White House was Steve Bannon. He had been chief political architect and Trump adviser during the electoral campaign. Bannon devised an election campaign favoring domestic manufacturers and American workers against the Wall Street and multinational corporate free marketers. He developed Trump's attack on the global trade agreements, which had led to the export of capital and the devastation of US manufacturing labor.

Equally significant, Bannon crafted Trumps early public opposition to the generals' 15-year trillion-dollar intervention in Afghanistan and the even more costly series of wars in the Middle East favored by the Israel-Firsters, including the ongoing proxy-mercenary war to overthrow the secular nationalist government of Syria.

Within 8 month of Trump's administration, the combined forces of the free market economic and military elite, the Democratic Party leaders, overt militarists in the Republican Party and their allies in the mass media succeeded in purging Bannon and marginalized the mass support base for his 'America First' economic nationalist and anti-'regime change' agenda.

The anti-Trump 'alliance' will now target the remaining few economic nationalists in the administration. These include: the CIA Director Mike Pompeo, (right) who favors protectionism by weakening the Asian and NAFTA trade agreements and Peter Navarro, Chairman of the White House Trade Council. Pompeo and Navarro face strong opposition from the ascendant neoliberal Zionist troika now dominating the Trump regime.

In addition, there is Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross, a billionaire and former director of Rothschild Inc., who allied with Bannon in threatening import quotas to address the massive US trade deficit with China and the European Union.

Another Bannon ally is US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer a former military and intelligence analyst with ties to the newsletter Breitbart. He is a strong opponent of the neoliberal, globalizers in and out of the Trump regime.

'Senior Adviser' and Trump speechwriter, Stephen Miller actively promotes the travel ban on Muslims and stricter restrictions on immigration. Miller represents the Bannon wing of Trump's zealously pro-Israel cohort.

Sebastian Gorka, Trump's Deputy Assistant in military and intelligence affairs, was more an ideologue than analyst, who wrote for Breitbart and rode to office on Bannon's coat tails. Right after removing Bannon, the 'Generals' purged Gorka in early August on accusations of 'anti-Semitism'.

Whoever remains among Trump's economic nationalists are significantly handicapped by the loss of Steve Bannon who had provided leadership and direction. However, most have social and economic backgrounds, which also link them to the military power elite on some issues and with the pro-Israel free marketers on others. However, their core beliefs had been shaped and defined by Bannon.

The Business Power Elite

Exxon Mobile CEO Rex Tillerson, Trump's Secretary of State and former Texas Governor Rick Perry, Energy Secretary lead the business elite. Meanwhile, the business elite associated with US manufacturing and industry have little direct influence on domestic or foreign policy. While they follow the Wall Street free marketers on domestic policy, they are subordinated to the military elite on foreign policy and are not allied with Steve Bannon's ideological core.

Trump's business elite, which has no link to the economic nationalists in the Trump regime, provides a friendlier face to overseas economic allies and adversaries.

Analysis and Conclusion

The power elite cuts across party affiliations, branches of government and economic strategies. It is not restricted to either political party, Republican or Democratic. It includes free marketers, some economic nationalists, Wall Street power brokers and militarists. All compete and fight for power, wealth and dominance within this administration. The correlation of forces is volatile, changing rapidly in short periods of time reflecting the lack of cohesion and coherence in the Trump regime.

Never has the US power elite been subject to such monumental changes in composition and direction during the first year of a new regime.

During the Obama Presidency, Wall Street and the Pentagon comfortably shared power with Silicon Valley billionaires and the mass media elite. They were united in pursuing an imperial 'globalist' strategy, emphasizing multiple theaters of war and multilateral free trade treaties, which was in the process of reducing millions of American workers to permanent helotry.

With the inauguration of President Trump, this power elite faced challenges and the emergence of a new strategic configuration, which sought drastic changes in US political economic and military policy.

The architect of the Trump's campaign and strategy, Steve Bannon, sought to displace the global economic and military elite with his alliance of economic nationalists, manufacturing workers and protectionist business elites. Bannon pushed for a major break from Obama's policy of multiple permanent wars to expanding the domestic market. He proposed troop withdrawal and the end of US military operations in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq, while increasing a combination of economic, political and military pressure on China. He sought to end sanctions and confrontation against Moscow and fashion economic ties between the giant energy producers in the US and Russia.

While Bannon was initially the chief strategist in the White House, he quickly found himself faced with powerful rivals inside the regime, and ardent opponents among Democratic and Republican globalists and especially from the Zionist neoliberals who systematically maneuvered to win strategic economic and policy positions within the regime. Instead of being a coherent platform from which to formulate a new radical economic strategy, the Trump Administration was turned into a chaotic and vicious 'terrain for struggle'. The Bannon's economic strategy barely got off the ground.

The mass media and operatives within the state apparatus, linked to Obama's permanent war strategy, first attacked Trump's proposed economic reconciliation with Russia. To undermine any 'de-escalation', they fabricated the Russian spy and election manipulation conspiracy. Their first successful shots were fired at Lt. General Michael Flynn, Bannon's ally and key proponent for reversing the Obama/Clinton policy of military confrontation with Russia. Flynn was quickly destroyed and openly threatened with prosecution as a 'Russian agent' in whipped-up hysteria that resembled the heydays of Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Key economic posts in the Trump regime were split between the Israel-Firster neoliberals and the economic nationalists. The 'Deal Maker' President Trump attempted to harness Wall Street-affiliated neoliberal Zionists to the economic nationalists, linked to Trump's working class electoral base, in formulating new trade relations with the EU and China, which would favor US manufacturers. Given the irreconcilable differences between these forces, Trump's nae 'deal' weakened Bannon, undermined his leadership and wrecked his nationalist economic strategy.

While Bannon had secured several important economic appointees, the Zionist neoliberals undercut their authority. The Fischer-Mnuchin-Cohn cohort successfully set a competing agenda.

The entire Congressional elite from both parties united to paralyze the Trump Bannon agenda. The giant corporate mass media served as a hysterical and rumor-laden megaphone for zealous Congressional and FBI investigators magnifying every nuance of Trump's US Russia relations in search of conspiracy. The combined state-Congressional and Media apparatus overwhelmed the unorganized and unprepared mass base of Bannon electoral coalition which had elected Trump.

Thoroughly defeated, the toothless President Trump retreated in desperate search for a new power configuration, turning his day-to-day operations over to 'his generals'. The elected civilian President of the United States embraced his generals' pursuit of a new military-globalist alliance and escalation of military threats foremost against North Korea, but including Russia and China. Afghanistan was immediately targeted for an expanded intervention.

Trump effectively replaced Bannon's economic nationalist strategy with a revival Obama's multi-war military approach.

The Trump regime re-launched the US attacks on Afghanistan and Syria exceeding Obama's use of drone attacks on suspected Muslim militants. He intensified sanctions against Russia and Iran, embraced Saudi Arabia's war against the people of Yemen and turned the entire Middle East policy over to his ultra-Zionist Political Advisor (Real Estate mogul and son-in-law) Jared Kushner and US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman.

Trump's retreat turned into a grotesque rout. The Generals embraced the neoliberal Zionists in Treasury and the Congressional global militarists. Communication Directory Anthony Scaramucci was fired. Trump's Chief of Staff General Joe Kelly purged Steve Bannon. Sebastian Gorka was kicked out.

The eight months of internal struggle between the economic nationalists and the neoliberals has ended: The Zionist-globalist alliance with Trump's Generals now dominate the Power Elite.

Trump is desperate to adapt to the new configuration, allied to his own Congressional adversaries and the rabidly anti-Trump mass media.

Having all but decimated Trump's economic nationalists and their program, the Power Elite then mounted a series of media-magnified events centering around a local punch-out in Charlottesville, Virginia between 'white supremacists' and 'anti-fascists'. After the confrontation led to death and injury, the media used Trump's inept attempt to blame both 'baseball bat'-wielding sides, as proof of the President's links to neo-Nazis and the KKK. Neoliberal and Zionists, within the Trump administration and his business councils, all joined in the attack on the President, denouncing his failure to immediately and unilaterally blame rightwing extremists for the mayhem.

Trump is turning to sectors of the business and Congressional elite in a desperate attempt to hold onto waning support via promises to enact massive tax cuts and deregulate the entire private sector.

The decisive issue was no longer over one policy or another or even strategy.

Trump had already lost on all accounts. The 'final solution' to the problem of the election of Donald Trump is moving foreword step-by-step his impeachment and possible arrest by any and all means.

What the rise and destruction of economic nationalism in the 'person' of Donald Trump tells us is that the American political system cannot tolerate any capitalist reforms that might threaten the imperial globalist power elite.

Writers and activists used to think that only democratically elected socialist regimes would be the target of systematic coup d'at. Today the political boundaries are far more restrictive. To call for 'economic nationalism', completely within the capitalist system, and seek reciprocal trade agreements is to invite savage political attacks, trumped up conspiracies and internal military take-overs ending in 'regime change'.

The global-militarist elite purge of economic nationalists and anti-militarists was supported by the entire US left with a few notable exceptions. For the first time in history the left became an organizational weapon of the pro-war, pro-Wall Street, pro-Zionist Right in the campaign to oust President Trump. Local movements and leaders, notwithstanding, trade union functionaries, civil rights and immigration politicians, liberals and social democrats have joined in the fight for restoring the worst of all worlds: the Clinton-Bush-Obama/Clinton policy of permanent multiple wars, escalating confrontations with Russia, China, Iran and Venezuela and Trump's deregulation of the US economy and massive tax-cuts for big business.

We have gone a long-way backwards: from elections to purges and from peace agreements to police state investigations. Today's economic nationalists are labeled 'fascists'; and displaced workers are 'the deplorables'!

Americans have a lot to learn and unlearn. Our strategic advantage may reside in the fact that political life in the United States cannot get worse we really have touched bottom and (barring a nuclear war) we can only look up.


The original source of this article is The Official James Petras Website
http://petras.lahaine.org/?p=2153
Copyright Prof. James Petras, The Official James Petras Website, 2017

While I'm the first to abhor the militaristic and expansionistic aspects of Israeli foreign policy, the breezy way that this guy talks about Teh Jews (in this essay and others) makes me really uncomfortable.

Super super important message there, wamfgcom!

Now, while I DO STRONGLY disagree with blaming Israel,
a nation MUCH more secular than theocratic dictatorships
such as Saudi Arabia, North Korea (their unelected "god" Kim Jong Un),
Pakistan, Vatican City, Poland or even parts of the USA,
at the same time, NOBODY should be ridiculed and called "anti-semitic"
just because they don't want billions of their tax dollars going to one particular
country alone.

I am always on the battle against Jew-blamers over the RT News YouTube channel
video comment section, countering their bullshit.

Neverthless, my point IS much less important than all the other things you mention.

That said: you CANNOT assume that the VOTERS are not to blame
until you run an EXPERIMENT with the voters voting EVERY possible combination
of candidates. i.e. If you have C candidates or political parties, and V voters,
that is C^V possible combinations of votes
where C =, for example, 10 candidates on the ballot in NJ for the US Presidential election in 2016 (or, say, 9 candidates and not voting is the 10th alternative)
and V = 300 million
and test the outcome after each election, and see who is then in power.

Logic demands that I blame the voters until an observable quantifiable testable experiment proves to me otherwise. If the power is not in the hands of the voters, if the election has no effect on the outcome, then that means there exist 300 million stupid people who waste their time voting.

Now I have to read in detail your post to learn more.

All the injustices of power that you enumerate, wamfgcom,
are what people all over the world SHOULD be up in arms against.
And what we SHOULD use divide-and-conquer methods to overcome,
e.g. by turning the US military against Wall Street bankers.

The divide-and-conquer method is CHRONICALLY in the back of my mind
when I think about this or any other political issue.

I CRINGE at any thoughts of using "nonviolent disobedience" to solve this.
Clearly, we have observable quantifiable testable proof that all the nonviolent disobedience garbage has NOT solved these financial crimes by Wall Street.
That Goldman Sachs STILL exists and has NOT been outlawed as a terrorist organization like it should have been ten years ago IS the physical evidence,
the proof, that non-military action has failed.

I am thrilled that there do exist young (< 53) people out there who have done the research and collected & organized this data, that I haven't, and who do still take an active interest in these things.

Wow it is refreshing to hear this. From what I have learned it goes up to the Higher levels like the Bilderberg group. We only see a few names of those who attended. They discus and plan the global future and have people in bureaucracy, politics, media, military ect. to push the agenda. The Royal family , Rothschild's, Fairchild's, Rockefeller preserve their blood lines and are all tied together in ruling the world.
Before it was wars, now it's Terrorism in cahoots with the Saudis to keep us distracted and take away more rights and freedoms.
The elites including Bill Gates want the population to be reduced drastically so they can control us better. These small groups that run the world can be traced far back in history like the Jesuits. I hope more people wake up and say enough, but reveling the crimes against humanity will be painful. There is more of us than them, so we can, but by design the system is built to enslave us and keep our consciousness down. Media, education and food to name a few. A lot of intelligence and thought has gone into building a prison without walls. Truth is stranger than fiction.

I had hopes for Trump, but I am sure he is told you are just here to be a face and really have no say on big things that really matter. Remember JFK by the way.

The world IS overpopulated. It is unsustainable for its giving physical carrying capacity.

I just learned that fascist Australia has had a ban against gays marrying.
And the INFINITE HYPOCRISY of rightwing conservatives so INFINITELY SELF-UNAWARE when they spout about how they have to "defend our freedom to speak out against gay marriage and defend our freedom to pass laws against gays marrying" even though gays marrying each other physically affects NOBODY else.

How about socialists' & communists' rights to pass laws against employers
and force them to pay higher minimum wage? $15/hr is too low.
It SHOULD be $25/hr at least for ALL jobs. If an employer cannot pay that,
then they should not be in business, according to the law.

What about MY right to pass laws against meat-eaters, to put meat-eaters in prison or to death, or to pass laws against breeders (which includes the meat-eaters who support the mass breeding & murder of animals in factory farms) - breeders of both humans & nonhumans - and put people who make babies into prison?

When you force a new human into existence, that human did NOT give you their permission.You have NOW FORCE DEATH upon them - they WILL die some day.
Forcing new humans into existence IMMEDIATELY forces physical needs:
to feed, bathe, shelter them. There exists NO guarantee that that human will
later be a benefit to the economy (as if 99% of Western population gives a DAMN
about WTF "benefit" to the economy means).

When a person breeds a new humans, they should be forced to take care of them the
rest of their lives. And, if the government won't stop the breeders, then the government has NO right to imprison or punish a person who is kicked out of their
house at age 18, or earlier, ESPECIALLY by religiontard breeders for being atheist,
if that person steals and uses force to survive and live well.

Meanwhile, there is a RIDICULOUS fear to worry about some unnamed "elite" or Bill Gates "controlling" people if the population is smaller. How? How will they "control" the population ANY more than is done already?

If one is concerned about control, then do what the few brave liberals have done in the past: FIGHT FOR PRISONERS' RIGHTS. I already wear a button I designed:
BOMB ALL PRISONS: FREE ALL PRISONERS.

Prisons (which includes factory farms) ALREADY exist, are NOT some vague imaginary hypothetical in the future, and are ALREADY the MAXIMUM amount of control one being has over another. Just because I use MS Word doesn't mean Bill Gates controls me.

Obviously. The ONLY way to deal with an antidemocratic ultra-conservative rightwing fascist theocracy like Saudi Arabia is to NUKE it. The USA SHOULD be pro-war,
but pro-war AGAINST unelected monarchies, AGAINST Wall Street & banksters, AGAINST

Can't imagine how ANYBODY can think that electing ANYBODY from the same 2 political parties (again - this applies NOT just to the USA, but to ALL nations) that caused these problems would in ANYWAY make things better.

Let's see Trump pander and give private interviews with Ralph Nader or animal rights activists or vegans or Ingrid Newkirk or Max Keiser or Dr Richard Wolff or Dr Jill Stein or Jeremy Rifkin or Transhumanist POTUS candidate Zoltan Istvan or
the way he has given private interviews with religious idiots & filled his cabinet
with oil tycoons & Wall Street bankers.

Let's see REAL bravery. Yeeeahhhh -riiiiight. ANY time ANYONE shows TRUE courage, the majority of the population shits all over them & ridicules them & insults them with IRRELEVANT BULLSHIT, but NEVER addressing their arguments.
NEVER addressing whether the good of what they propose would outweigh the bad.

THIS is why I have ZERO ZERO ZERO sympathy for subhumans with different politics than mine who die or lose their children or lose their homes.