Trump won’t bring peace anymore than he’ll end the genocide. Our only option is to overthrow the imperial state.

The Gaza genocide is the inescapable reality behind every part of U.S. politics; the incomprehensible evil that poisons whoever fails to take it seriously. Gaza just made the Democrats have to concede, and it’s ensured that MAGA will lose momentum during Trump’s second term. This is because in order to advance the fanatically pro-Zionist part of Trump’s agenda, the president-elect has begun filling his cabinet with figures who are both Zionists and neoconservatives. He’s chosen Brian Hood, a Bush-style Zionist neocon, to be the leader of the State Department transition team. This confirms that the neocons who Trump visibly surrounded himself with during the last days of his campaign—Mike Pompeo, Tom Cotton, Marco Rubio—were signs of what’s to come. 

Though Trump has announced that he won’t put Pompeo or Haley in his cabinet, Hood is there to ensure that people just as bad as them will define how the administration operates. In this way, Pompeo’s faction has still won, even though on the surface it looks like it’s been sidelined. The trajectory is towards a new White House that’s totally committed both to assisting the “Israeli” Nazi state, and to advancing the new cold war escalations.

This describes the present White House too; the difference is that Trump seeks to create this extended version of the Blinken State Department, while presenting himself as an enemy of the established power centers. Selling this myth about his own historical role is how he built a popular base. So far, there are signs that this base will lose enthusiasm for Trump as he fails to fulfill his anti-establishment mandates; many of the more observant MAGA supporters got upset upon hearing that Pompeo had a chance of coming back. A crucial task of anti-imperialists is to turn this kind of disillusionment into a growth in awareness about what exactly Gaza means; to expand mass consciousness when it comes to our government’s genocidal nature.

Those who pay close attention are seeing that Trump seeks to re-create Biden’s interventionist policy circle, even though Trump has claimed to represent something different. Because of this, more are realizing that an imperial state exists. That it’s not possible to reform the existing state, which will always find a way to keep imperialism the driving political force. We need to expose just how evil this force is; how it’s not merely about feeding a military industrial complex, but also about overseeing the extermination of entire peoples for the benefit of multinational corporations. Imperialist wars will continue for as long as the existing state survives, because imperialism is not a policy but a system; one that can only be ended by replacing it with an economic model which produces for the collective benefit, rather than for profits.

This is the type of analysis that’s logical for somebody to come to if they keep noticing the patterns within America’s political cycle. More and more Americans have been looking for a way to end the war paradigm, because they’ve seen how it connects to the worsening of their own economic conditions. And though many among these Americans have invested in MAGA, if MAGA fails again then this movement will decline. The economy now is even worse than it was eight years ago, and as inflation continues to ravage our communities under Trump, the enthusiasm for MAGA is going to shrink. 

Under these circumstances, where the power of the old political theater diminishes, our society will have little choice but to confront the darkest aspect of this situation. To become more widely aware of the genocide that our government has committed, and that it intends to expand exponentially. This genocide is fundamentally connected to Trump’s betrayal of his anti-establisment campaign promises, and it’s an integral part of the imperial system which so many are turning against; so it’s getting harder for Americans to ignore. As the world continues to absorb the shock from witnessing what our leaders have done to Gaza’s people, this genocide will impact many of those who are looking for answers, both ideologically and emotionally.

Most Americans already know that the military action in Gaza isn’t justified, and there is substantial skepticism towards “Israel” among the conservative base. The majority don’t recognize this action as a genocide, though, at least not yet; and the psyop machine, aided by Elon Musk’s Twitter, has been able to divert much of the right towards anti-Jewish sentiments. The pro-Palestine movement is organizationally dominated by the New Left, whose focus is limited to the student element; and though connecting with this element is crucial, our cause can only succeed by reaching the broader masses. 

The most important people to reach are the ones who otherwise wouldn’t get politically involved; not unless they’re offered something that’s outside the confines of bourgeois politics. A plurality of working class Americans don’t vote, because they already recognize the superficial nature of electoral power transfers. To bring in these disaffected elements, we must come to a new strategy for the second Trump term. One that lets us exploit the tactical advantages this election’s outcome has provided for us, while responding to the repressive dangers which anti-imperialists will soon find ourselves in.

Every day, it becomes clearer how vulnerable MAGA is to losing support, and therefore how much potential we have for connecting with disillusioned Americans. Trump decided to shaft Pompeo because he sees how fragile his coalition truly is, and how much backlash he could bring upon himself if he fails to keep up appearances as “anti-establishment.” This indicates that the elements within his coalition which are hostile towards monopoly capital—such as the Libertarians—have more power than it may appear. They haven’t been able to get Trump to fire Hood, because our imperialist deep state holds all the real leverage over policy; but they have displayed enough power for Trump to try to aesthetically please them. I predict that Trump will do things like this many times; engage in some token antiwar or “dissident” action, without truly defying the monopolist forces that control him. And this trick can only work so well. In the end, the poison from the Gaza genocide will kill MAGA.

Seeking to appease the intelligence centers that have blackmailed him through Epstein, Trump will advance the war machine’s goals. And should we bring the broad masses into the pro-Palestine struggle, while fortifying our orgs against the next crackdowns, we’ll be in place to provide an alternative towards MAGA. We need to start on this work immediately. There’s no time to lose; the state intends to criminalize dissident organizing as soon as possible, and the Palestinians can’t wait for us. Trump’s refusal to truly kick out the neocons is another example of why you can’t end imperialism without overthrowing the imperial state. As more of the masses come to internalize this reality, we must work with them in defeating our monopolist dictatorship.

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