Trump as a candidate: a year of unprecedented events.

The year 2022 is a year of unprecedented events, of taboos being broken, of old conventions being overturned. For the first time in Brazil, a president fighting for reelection is overthrown. For the first time since 1945, a conflict between two regular armies has erupted in the heart of Europe. For the first time in Brazilian history, a man has been elected president of the Republic three times. For the first time in modern history, the United States has been challenged by a regular army and has so far been unable to defeat it.

It's a brave new world, as the writer Aldous Huxley would say. Also in an unprecedented moment, Trump becomes the first president to run for election three times since the Second World War. 

The series of unprecedented events we see here is symptomatic of a general crisis in international capitalism. The stability and conventions established by the ruling class are rapidly dissolving; capitalism is preparing for a new and significant stage of crisis, perhaps its terminal crisis.

The Donald Trump Phenomenon

Donald Trump is the leader of the American far-right. His shocking and aggressive style, coupled with "anti-establishment" rhetoric and a program that serves the interests of smaller American capitalists, the middle classes, and even falsely appeals to the interests of the industrial proletariat, has unified scattered and discontented sectors and created a conservative mass movement that has no equal in the United States, not even on the left. 

None of what has been said above indicates that Donald Trump is good, that his policies are good; that's not the point, because we don't think so. But it's about seeing reality as it is. If it weren't for the Covid-19 pandemic and a major media cartel against him, it's possible, even probable, that he would have secured a second term. 

During the two years that Trump was out of government, an intense witch hunt was waged against him and his movement within the Republican Party. It is quite clear that imperialism seeks to create a "good" Trump.

The fight for control of the right wing

Steve Bannon, a key advisor to Donald Trump, once said: “It’s not about fighting the Democrats, but about winning the leadership within the Republican Party.” He would then explain that once in control of the Republican Party, he could, over time, defeat the Democrats. The far-right strategist is correct in his reasoning. The general election in the US is a clash of two blocs, defined by the fundamental faction that controls the bloc. Defining this faction is the fundamental issue, therefore, the key to the electoral contest.

Traditional Republicans are a fundamental piece of the political system of American imperialism. Donald Trump took control of the Republican Party and the support they held among the party's base from them. Now, two years after the election, the traditional sector of Republicanism seeks to launch the current governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, as an alternative to Trump, who has just announced that he will be a candidate again. 

DeSantis presents Republican voters with a "Trumpism" of the system. The foreign policy project that Trump defends and the anti-globalization economic proposal are sidelined, leaving only conservative values.

Will he win? It's impossible to say. He might win the primary, but it's unlikely he'll become the true leader of the Trump movement. The Trump movement wants a controversial politician who displeases the press and the system; simply replicating conservative values ​​without addressing the rest tends not to be enough to solve the problem. It seems we're going from one crisis to another.