The entirety of Donald Trump’s con artist schtick to bamboozle his followers was perfectly illustrated in one recent photograph. In it, the president-elect sits grinning maniacally next to fellow rich white guy James Quincey, CEO of Coca-Cola. Clutched in Trump’s famously short fingers is an expensive, specialty-made “commemorative” Diet Coke.
Trump’s Diet Coke addiction has long been used by the grifter-in-chief to sell his fans on the big lie of his career: that, beneath all the private jets and over-the-top gilded decor, he’s a “regular” guy just like them. He, too, houses the sugar-free caffeinated beverages as a vague gesture towards “health” in between housing vegetable-free greasy meals of cheap hamburgers and sugary desserts. He must be an ordinary, salt-of-the-earth man! After all, he drinks a product found at every common supermarket. Never mind that Trump would never sully himself by entering a grocery store. He pays people to do that for him.
In this ridiculous gift offered to Trump by a fellow man of unbelievable wealth, the truth is exposed. Ordinary people hand their money over to Coca-Cola. In return, they get kidney stones that they won’t be able to treat should Trump take their health care away, as he has long hoped to do. Trump, in contrast, sits back in his Palm Beach mansion, accepting bribes and flattery in exchange for promises of tax cuts and deregulation for the wealthiest Americans. It’s all bankrolled by the little guys, who pay for it at the grocery store and in losing basic government services. The illusion of “populism,” purchased by the cheap prop of Trump’s ubiquitous $2 Diet Coke can, is enough to distract MAGA from these realities and trick them into thinking the rich former reality TV star is one of them.
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On Tuesday, NBC News reported that tech billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg will all have prominent seats on the platform at Trump’s inauguration. The symbolism is unmistakable. Those seats are usually reserved for family members, former presidents, and prominent politicians. Giving those seats to billionaires signals loudly that this is a new era of oligarchy, without even an attempt to feign allegiance to pre-Trump notions of government for and by the people. President Joe Biden was alarmed enough to make this issue the focal point of his final speech in office.
“Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead,” Biden said in his 17-minute farewell address from the Oval Office Wednesday night.
Longtime Trump ally and host of the popular “War Room” podcast Steve Bannon is not happy about this. In a recent interview, he called Musk “a truly evil guy” and lambasted tech billionaires for being focused on “aggregation of wealth” at the expense of American workers. Nor is this a one-off. Bannon’s been deriding the MAGA-come-lately men of Silicon Valley for being “techno-futilist” instead of “populist nationalist.” Bannon makes up $5 words to make his ignoramus audience feel smart, but his point isn’t that hard to suss: MAGA does better, politically, when it’s perceived as a “populist” movement for the working class, not crony capitalism on steroids.
There is little doubt that yelling slurs, like drinking Diet Coke, is how the wealthy leaders of MAGA make common cause with the hoi polloi who crowd the cheap seats at a Trump rally.
“Perceived” is the operative word here. Bannon’s populism is as fake as Trump’s, as evidenced by the way he makes money by swindling the working-class Republican voters he claims to champion. Bannon’s recent stint in federal prison was over his role in Trump’s attempted coup, but he still faces federal charges regarding his role in a “Build the Wall” scam. Prosecutors allege Bannon took money from MAGA donors, often elderly people on fixed incomes, with promises to build a border wall, but pocketed the cash instead. Not the act of a true champion of the little guy, to say the least.
Still, in the reality TV distortion of politics that defines our current moment, Bannon’s right that pretending to be a man of the people is good enough to pass muster with the disinformation-drunk MAGA masses. By all appearances, that’s what Zuckerberg, Musk, and their rich boy ilk are trying to do. But not through actually humbling themselves by, say, giving away their billions and learning to live more simple lives. (That’s what Bezos’s ex-wife is doing, and therefore is likely viewed as inexcusably feminine behavior.) No, the preferred way to play-act “normal American man” is to be a massive jerk.
The trendy term for this is “vice-signaling,” defined by The Bulwark’s Tim Miller as “people who now gleefully portray themselves publicly as amoral or immoral in order to demonstrate some sort of strength or sophistication.” Trump talking about his admiration for fictional serial killers is the most obnoxious version, but it’s everywhere in MAGA. It’s why Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth is so fiercely loved by GOP voters — not despite, but because of the sexual abuse allegations. It’s also the primary way that rich, out-of-touch weirdoes try to appear as “just folks” to working-class Republican voters.
In his newsletter, journalist Max Read lays out Zuckerberg’s version of vice-signaling:
Over the past eighteen months or so he grew out his hair; he replaced his hoodies with boxy tees; he got really into M.M.A. and wakeboarding. And, yes, he started wearing a gold chain. New Zuck is undeniably less off-putting than old, sweaty-hoodie, Caesar-cut Zuck. But he’s also unmistakably fratty, butch, and (to borrow an overused Twitter phrase) “right-coded,” partaking in the aesthetic and the hobbies of people you would expect to own crypto, listen to mindset podcasts, and vote for Trump (or, at least, refuse to vote for Biden).
The aesthetic change has been accompanied by a MAGA makeover of Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook. The fact-checking program has ended, with Zuckerberg pretending that the choice between fake and real news is merely about taste, like choosing between Miller Lite or a Cabernet. Inside the company, policies to promote racial diversity and LGBTQ equality were ended. Hate speech restrictions on Facebook were lifted.
A telling article in the Financial Times showed how delusional and childish rich white guys going full MAGA really are.
Even the way people on Wall Street talk and interact is changing. Bankers and financiers say Trump’s victory has emboldened those who chafed at “woke doctrine” and felt they had to self-censor or change their language to avoid offending younger colleagues, women, minorities or disabled people.
“I feel liberated,” said a top banker. “We can say ‘r*t*rd’ and ‘p*ssy’ without the fear of getting cancelled . . . it’s a new dawn.”
These man-children feel like they’re “rebelling,” but real rebellion is the oppressed rising against the more powerful. These are the richest, most privileged people in society bragging about how much they enjoy bullying people with lower social status. Sexual harassment is not storming the gates of the Bastille. Mocking disabled people isn’t the Harper’s Ferry revolt. These are cowards kicking people who can’t fight back, because they’re scared of picking on someone their own size.
Still, there is little doubt that yelling slurs, like drinking Diet Coke, is how the wealthy leaders of MAGA make common cause with the hoi polloi who crowd the cheap seats at a Trump rally. Musk may be the richest man in the world, but he fools his fanboys into thinking he’s one of them because he, too, can act like a total moron online. Zuckerberg can chat with fellow rich boy Joe Rogan on a podcast, and the listeners feel included, even though they would never be invited to either man’s house for a party. But the trick works because the two dress like they have never even spoken to a woman.
It costs a lot of money to look that cheap. As Kevin Roose at the New York Times reported, Zuckerberg’s dudebro look comes complete with a $900,000 watch. Yet he looks terrible so that appeals to the MAGA base of men who also find it emasculating the way women expect them to shower every day.
All this vice-signaling and toxic masculinity theatrics may be sincerely felt by the billionaires or just a put-on (I suspect it’s a mix), but it does serve the larger goal of concealing what the obscenely wealthy expect to get from Trump. Economist Paul Krugman recently laid it out on the “Daily Blast” podcast. “Working-class voters are going to face higher prices and upper income voters are going to benefit from tax cuts,” he told host Greg Sargent. Trump has “an extremely regressive economic program in mind, one that really will effectively redistribute income away from working-class voters to the top.”
Sure, you may never be able to retire or own a home, but it seems the r-word is coming back into fashion! I’d call that a bad trade-off.
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