As we all know, Trump was inaugurated as the 45th President on Friday the 20th of January 2017. His speech again resonated with the way he ran his campaign. His campaign painted him to be the man of the people. He was the man to end corruption in the establishment. Through his rhetoric (most likely designed by the former chairman of Breitbart news, Steve Bannon, who was his Caimpagn CEO) he captured his audience to great effect. He harnessed their positive energy and then harnessed negative energy from his opposition to create an ugly full swinging pendulum – a pendulum that won him the White House. After winning the election, the question quickly turned to who was going to team up with President Trump? Who were the minds that would lead and direct America to be great again? The man of people has chosen. His administration is the richest and most elite, the White House has ever seen. The question is – is Trump really a man for the people, and if not what are his political agendas?
Trumps first card is nominee for Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, who is a man of Oil and Gas and like Trump, has a lack of experience within government. Rex Tillerson was the CEO of Exxon Mobil between 2006 and 2016. He is a climate change skeptic – fairly obvious for a man that has made his livelihood in Oil. What is alarming however is that he still owns $15 million of stock in ExxonMobil. Hence, he has a major conflict of interest to work within government. He will shape the future of America to suit his personal interests. What is more alarming is that he has an order of friendship with Russia, and was awarded this by Vladimir Putin. He has a contract made in 2011 with Russia for exploration of the Russian Artic, because Obama would not let ExxonMobil explore the American Artic for climate change reasons. This suggests that Trump will move to create foreign policy that cosies up to Russia and Putin – possibly a wise move with an ever-hungry growing China. China has been investing in its relationships with other countries to increase their global scope for years. A prime example is the Chinese infrastructure investment in the Nicaragua Canal that would allow the Chinese to bypass the American controlled Panama Canal if plans go ahead. Although a possible wise move from Trump, it is still a rather frightening one too. Russia will happily cosy up to the USA as long as its needs can be met. It may require interference-free reign over the Baltic States, and may expect Trump to undermine NATO interference in the area too, for example the possible reduction of American Troops in Poland. Rex Tillerson is the man chosen to possibly cosy up to Russia – a perfect choice if all the above is true.
Trump’s second card is Steve Mnuchin, the nominee for Secretary of the Treasury. Steve Mnuchin is a Yale graduate who drove a Porsche whilst in college. He is a former Goldman Sachs employee, who has made roughly $46 million as a Goldman Sachs employee, according to sources. Trump was the man who coined the phrase, ‘draining the swamp.’ The ideals behind ‘draining the swamp’ were meant to free America from the shackles of banks whilst creating a system where banks had less power. His hiring illustrates no draining of any swamp whatsoever, if anything the ‘man of the people’, has brought a large alligator into the swamp. Steve Mnuchin in 2008 swooped in on the failing and doomed bank, IndyMac, after the unfolding of events during the 2008 recession. Steve Mnuchin acquired this bank shortly before the Federal Government bailed them out, thus causing the share price of IndyMac to rocket, and Steve Mnuchin to make a lot of money. His number one priority is tax reform. One can only hope that taxes will be transformed with values of equity and equality at its core. However if Steve Mnuchin is the man to perform the reform, you can bet that he will have personal interest at the heart of the reform. Trump is not a man of the people if this is his idea of ‘draining the swamp’. An appointment for ‘draining the swamp’ would be a man with the same ideals and values of Bernie Sanders whoever that may be. Bernie Sanders’ idea is to reform the financial industry to reduce the power of Wall Street. He describes that the “heads, bankers win/tails everyone else loses” system must come to an end. The idea that banks are too big fail needs to go. He encourages the idea of banks to become transparent and not to continue to gamble other people’s money on risky derivatives, acting illegally and making huge profits that only seem to benefit the few elites at the top. He proposes the idea that if a bank is too big to fail then it is too big to exist and, thus suggests legislation to cap the size of the largest financial institutions so that their assets are no more than 2% of GDP. Bernie Sanders is a man who has the ideas to drain the swamp – not Steve Mnuchin. Steve Mnuchin does not prove the idea that Trump is a man of the people.
Trumps card’s for the nominee for Secretary of Labour is Andrew Puzder. Andrew Puzder is the CEO of CKE Restaurants, the parent company of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr (two fast food restaurants in the USA). He has a background as an Attorney and is pro-life in the abortion debate. While the abortion debate is important, what is alarming is that he opposes increases in minimum wages, stating that increases will harm the economy of small businesses. Millions of Americans are calling for an increase to a minimum wage of $15 an hour. Andrew Puzder is not only against that suggestion but also opposed Obama’s proposal for minimum wages to rise from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour. This is coming from a man that is believed to earn between $4 and $10 million a year as CEO of CKE restaurants. If minimum wages were to increase, his earnings would most likely reduce due to increased labour costs. In fact, if minimum wages were to increase the elites’ salaries would all receive cuts due to increased labour costs – they would receive a smaller piece of the pie because people on the lowest wage would have a larger piece than they had before. As Secretary of Labour, Andrew Puzder would most likely act in accordance to protect his own personal interests at the expense of the people. Thus illustrating further that Trump is not a man of the people.
Trump’s inauguration speech again tried to reinforce that he was a ‘man of the people.’ But what we must realize is that he is not. He is quite the opposite. Do not let his propaganda fool you – look at the facts. If you look at the facts you will see what his political agenda actually circles around. It is tied with the Elite. It is tied with Wall Street. It is tied with Oil and Gas. It is tied with Russia. It is tied with Big Business. What it certainly is not tied with, are the People.
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