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Lara Trump, daughter-in-law of former US President Donald Trump, speaks at the Republican National Committee (RNC) Spring meeting on March 8, 2024, in Houston, Texas. The RNC elected Lara Trump co-chair of the committee and Michael Whatley as chairman, tightening the former president's grip over the party ahead of the November election.
Will the layoff victims at the Republican National Committee now have more sympathy for the workers who had their jobs destroyed by Wall Street?
There’s been a hostile takeover at the RNC. And as in all such takeovers the first order of business is to lay off as many workers as possible. In this case, about 60 workers so far.
In the business world, the new owner initiating a hostile takeover makes the purchase with wads of borrowed money and then places that debt on the purchased company. To service that debt, costs must be cut, usually through mass layoffs. For example, Elon Must bought Twitter with billions in borrowed funds, which increased Twitter’s debt service from $50 million a year to $1 billion per year. To cover those costs thousands of employees were Xed out .
The fundamental reason for a leveraged buyout/hostile takeover, is to extract as much wealth as possible, and this is what Donald J. Trump is doing with his takeover of the RNC. But he didn’t have to put up or borrow any money. He jumped immediately into extraction mode: He wants to raid the RNC treasury to pay for his legal bills.
How do you think the RNC mass layoff victims feel about losing their jobs so that Trump has more money to defend himself from indictments involving porn payments, rape, inflating his net worth, stealing top secret documents, and trying to overturn an election?
To get that done, he—like all takeover artists—put in his own management team, which he can fully control. The new chairs of the RNC are Michael Whatley, a close Trump ally, and Lara Trump, his daughter-in-law. (If he weren’t so busy in court, Trump might have put in himself.)
The RNC layoff victims now join the 30 million Americans who have also lost their jobs over the past three decades. No one is immune from the mass layoff plague, except maybe the chieftains of Wall Street, who seem to hold onto their jobs even when they gamble and crash the entire economy.
While blue-collar industrial workers have been the most numerous layoff victims, today even the booming high-tech industry is chopping away at jobs despite record earnings and valuations. Last year alone, 260,000 mass layoffs took place in that sector with another 50,000 so far this year. The money saved has been pouring into stock buybacks, punishing employees while rewarding financial elites.
At least in this case, the RNC has no stocks, so there are no stock buybacks involved, as is the case preceding so many mass layoffs. Trump, as sole owner, can siphon out the money directly, though there will be attorney generals watching.
How do you think the RNC mass layoff victims feel about losing their jobs so that Trump has more money to defend himself from indictments involving porn payments, rape, inflating his net worth, stealing top secret documents, and trying to overturn an election?
Might they now have more sympathy for the workers who had their jobs destroyed by Wall Street? Would they now support legislation that limits buyouts and buybacks?
Not likely. Like so many political operatives, they will be lining up to sell their wares to Wall Street lobbyists.
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Les Leopold is the executive director of the Labor Institute and author of the new book, “Wall Street’s War on Workers: How Mass Layoffs and Greed Are Destroying the Working Class and What to Do About It." (2024). Read more of his work on his substack here.
There’s been a hostile takeover at the RNC. And as in all such takeovers the first order of business is to lay off as many workers as possible. In this case, about 60 workers so far.
In the business world, the new owner initiating a hostile takeover makes the purchase with wads of borrowed money and then places that debt on the purchased company. To service that debt, costs must be cut, usually through mass layoffs. For example, Elon Must bought Twitter with billions in borrowed funds, which increased Twitter’s debt service from $50 million a year to $1 billion per year. To cover those costs thousands of employees were Xed out .
The fundamental reason for a leveraged buyout/hostile takeover, is to extract as much wealth as possible, and this is what Donald J. Trump is doing with his takeover of the RNC. But he didn’t have to put up or borrow any money. He jumped immediately into extraction mode: He wants to raid the RNC treasury to pay for his legal bills.
How do you think the RNC mass layoff victims feel about losing their jobs so that Trump has more money to defend himself from indictments involving porn payments, rape, inflating his net worth, stealing top secret documents, and trying to overturn an election?
To get that done, he—like all takeover artists—put in his own management team, which he can fully control. The new chairs of the RNC are Michael Whatley, a close Trump ally, and Lara Trump, his daughter-in-law. (If he weren’t so busy in court, Trump might have put in himself.)
The RNC layoff victims now join the 30 million Americans who have also lost their jobs over the past three decades. No one is immune from the mass layoff plague, except maybe the chieftains of Wall Street, who seem to hold onto their jobs even when they gamble and crash the entire economy.
While blue-collar industrial workers have been the most numerous layoff victims, today even the booming high-tech industry is chopping away at jobs despite record earnings and valuations. Last year alone, 260,000 mass layoffs took place in that sector with another 50,000 so far this year. The money saved has been pouring into stock buybacks, punishing employees while rewarding financial elites.
At least in this case, the RNC has no stocks, so there are no stock buybacks involved, as is the case preceding so many mass layoffs. Trump, as sole owner, can siphon out the money directly, though there will be attorney generals watching.
How do you think the RNC mass layoff victims feel about losing their jobs so that Trump has more money to defend himself from indictments involving porn payments, rape, inflating his net worth, stealing top secret documents, and trying to overturn an election?
Might they now have more sympathy for the workers who had their jobs destroyed by Wall Street? Would they now support legislation that limits buyouts and buybacks?
Not likely. Like so many political operatives, they will be lining up to sell their wares to Wall Street lobbyists.
Les Leopold is the executive director of the Labor Institute and author of the new book, “Wall Street’s War on Workers: How Mass Layoffs and Greed Are Destroying the Working Class and What to Do About It." (2024). Read more of his work on his substack here.
There’s been a hostile takeover at the RNC. And as in all such takeovers the first order of business is to lay off as many workers as possible. In this case, about 60 workers so far.
In the business world, the new owner initiating a hostile takeover makes the purchase with wads of borrowed money and then places that debt on the purchased company. To service that debt, costs must be cut, usually through mass layoffs. For example, Elon Must bought Twitter with billions in borrowed funds, which increased Twitter’s debt service from $50 million a year to $1 billion per year. To cover those costs thousands of employees were Xed out .
The fundamental reason for a leveraged buyout/hostile takeover, is to extract as much wealth as possible, and this is what Donald J. Trump is doing with his takeover of the RNC. But he didn’t have to put up or borrow any money. He jumped immediately into extraction mode: He wants to raid the RNC treasury to pay for his legal bills.
How do you think the RNC mass layoff victims feel about losing their jobs so that Trump has more money to defend himself from indictments involving porn payments, rape, inflating his net worth, stealing top secret documents, and trying to overturn an election?
To get that done, he—like all takeover artists—put in his own management team, which he can fully control. The new chairs of the RNC are Michael Whatley, a close Trump ally, and Lara Trump, his daughter-in-law. (If he weren’t so busy in court, Trump might have put in himself.)
The RNC layoff victims now join the 30 million Americans who have also lost their jobs over the past three decades. No one is immune from the mass layoff plague, except maybe the chieftains of Wall Street, who seem to hold onto their jobs even when they gamble and crash the entire economy.
While blue-collar industrial workers have been the most numerous layoff victims, today even the booming high-tech industry is chopping away at jobs despite record earnings and valuations. Last year alone, 260,000 mass layoffs took place in that sector with another 50,000 so far this year. The money saved has been pouring into stock buybacks, punishing employees while rewarding financial elites.
At least in this case, the RNC has no stocks, so there are no stock buybacks involved, as is the case preceding so many mass layoffs. Trump, as sole owner, can siphon out the money directly, though there will be attorney generals watching.
How do you think the RNC mass layoff victims feel about losing their jobs so that Trump has more money to defend himself from indictments involving porn payments, rape, inflating his net worth, stealing top secret documents, and trying to overturn an election?
Might they now have more sympathy for the workers who had their jobs destroyed by Wall Street? Would they now support legislation that limits buyouts and buybacks?
Not likely. Like so many political operatives, they will be lining up to sell their wares to Wall Street lobbyists.