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Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy

SOLVED! SAMPLE! #25 - Trump's "State Capitalism" is Just a Grift, NOT Socialism

Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy

Jay Tomlinson

Marx, Political, Feminism, Jacobin, Left, Hightower, Politics, Counterspin, News, News Commentary, Maddow, Hartmann, Democracynow, Antiracism, Marxism, Socialism, Capitalism, Ezra, Liberal, Intercepted, Hayes, Progressive, Intercept, Intersectionality, Wolff

4.63.4K Ratings

🗓️ 21 October 2025

⏱️ 19 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Air Date: 10–14-25

Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon, and Erin discuss:

  • Ch. 1 - The cartoonish conservative and libertarian responses to Trump's state capitalism

  • Ch. 2 - Trump's interest in sovereign wealth funds, and the lie the right sells its supporters about getting money back

  • Ch. 3 - The left spectrum of reactions to Trump's state capitalism

  • Ch. 4 - Why Trump is definitely, 100%, not in any way a socialist

  • SOLVED! BACKSTAGE: Beyond the Algorithm: Ayn Rand's nearly psychotic opposition to altruism

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REFERENCES:

The Danger of Trump Seizing Private Companies - Time magazine

Trump's "State Capitalism … a Hybrid Between Socialism and Capitalism" Won't Make America Great Again - Cato Institute

Trump Is Embracing 'Daddy State' Economics - Reason

Trump's brand of US capitalism faces 'socialist' backlash from conservatives - BBC

Trump, national-capitalism at bay - Heterodox

Don't Let Trump Define What State Capitalism Can Be - The New Republic

What State Capitalism Can Do—and What It Can't - The American Prospect

Unfortunately, Donald Trump is Not a Socialist - Current Affairs

EXTRAS

Were the Nazis Socialists? - Britannica

r/AskHistorians: "Is Nazism right wing or left wing?"

Interview with Hitler - Interviews (Anthology 1859-1993)

BACKSTAGE

I've spent my entire career studying stress—the No. 1 cure for it might 'surprise' you - CNBC

Leonard Peikoff - Wikipedia

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Welcome to this episode of the award-winning Best of the Left podcast, although today we're sharing a sample of this week's episode of our other show, solved.

0:11.9

Best of Left members get solved early, ad-free, and complete with a members-only backstage segment all via podcast.

0:19.7

But we're also putting the show out on the

0:21.8

Best of Left YouTube channel where we're attempting to find a new audience. Consider supporting

0:26.4

us directly by signing up for a membership or help us grow on YouTube by subscribing to

0:31.2

the Best of Left YouTube channel and catching every episode of Solved there. And now here's a few

0:36.9

minutes for free to wet your appetite, but just like Best of the Left,

0:40.4

the real benefits kick in when you hear the whole show, which is greater than the sum of

0:44.9

its parts.

0:46.3

We are now definitely turning to the left in the analysis, and this is from Thomas

0:52.0

Pickety, author of Capital in the 21st century, from this

0:56.1

article, Trump, National Capitalism at Bay. And Pickety says, quote, the dream of prosperity

1:03.5

promised by national capitalism always ends up disappointing public expectations because it is,

1:09.6

in reality, built on exacerbated social hierarchies

1:13.6

and an ever-growing concentration of wealth.

1:18.1

I was like, oh, no, when Trump realizes that he's just like completely accidentally going

1:23.6

to concentrate even more wealth into the hands of the already wealthy. He's going to have

1:28.1

like such egg on his face. Someone should let him know. They're like, oh, you should read up on

1:34.5

this, sir. And then Pickety continues, quote, if the Republican Party has become so nationalistic

1:40.8

and virulent toward the outside world, it is first and foremost due to the

1:45.5

failure of Reagan era policies, which were supposed to boost growth, but only slowed it and

1:52.1

led to stagnating incomes for most, end quote. Which is just a, you know, short way of saying

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