Augustus Augustulus Trump

Augustus liquidated the Roman Republic a generation before Christ by appealing to religion, presenting himself as Apollo’s favorite, placing the senate under his authority, and becoming the first Roman emperor. He promoted upper-class birthrates, traditionalist moralism, and patriotic literature, such as Virgil’s commissioned Aeneid, a classic of political propaganda based on nonexistent facts about Rome’s past greatness.

Augustus capitalized on the social instability of the moment with a charismatic, demagogic, and strategic speech about making Rome great again under the symbol of the Golden Eagle. Half a millennium later, Augustulus was the last emperor of the Western Empire, defeated by the Germanic barbarians.

The American Empire, the most powerful in human history, is probably also the shortest. It has held that title for one-tenth as long as the Roman Empire in Europe and one-hundredth as long as the Eastern Empire.

The problem is not democracy but its substitute: the hijacking of an entire country and the world by the Anglo-Saxon techno-financial oligarchy.

For its part, China will end that rare historical exception called the “Century of Humiliation” and again be the greatest economic power, as it has been for millennia. We hope that what China has learned in those hundred years will not turn it into a Franco-Anglo-Saxon-type empire and that it will continue its oldest tradition of not subjugating peoples on the other side of the planet.

U.S. President Donald Trump is likely to be Augustus and Augustulus at the same time. We might wish that the replacement of hegemonies did not comply with the violent Thucydides Trap, as the replacement of Great Britain by the United States did not, but in that case, there was a strategic continuity of Anglo-Saxon capitalism. Hegemony passed from one ally to the other.

Now, the differences are substantial, and above all, the Anglo-Saxon obsession with not allowing any global competition promises us a greater conflict. The Northwest finds itself facing not only a new example of success, that of communist China, but also its own national poverty and its international collapse. It no longer just exports violence, as it has historically done, but consumes it in its internal market. As a solution, it appeals to the same religious-style narrative as always, denying any evidence to the contrary.

One of its most recent sermons has been to justify the success of Chinese socialism with American state capitalism, even though Chinese corporations are below the communist government, while in the West, they are above it and despite the fact that the Chinese economy is planned by the government, not by corporations. China has a market economy (something that capitalism did not invent but rather limited), but it is not a capitalist country. It is a communist country in a still capitalist world.

Beyond its material power, Nonoccident is concerned about what has moved it for generations: the need to abort examples of success that are not “the only possible model”: corporate capitalism. Anglo-Saxon success was not based on capitalism but on overseas imperialism. The capitalist countries that served as colonial suppliers at a pittance were more capitalist than the United States.

Now, the example of Anglo-capitalist success is beginning to deteriorate due to the loss of global power and its profound internal contradictions, which are inherent to capitalism and are crudely coming to the surface: Almost 1 million people living on the streets of the United States; epidemics of addiction and deaths from overdoses; periodic massacres; ethnic hatred to disguise a ruthless class struggle; students indebted to the point of becoming indenture slaves; increasing social differences; crime that cannot be reduced; fascism on the rise; and recognition, until a few years ago unthinkable, that liberal democracy (the political circus of plutocracy) no longer works; recognition (now from the poor right and the wealthy capitalists) that democracy does not work and never worked; that the oligarchs have taken Washington, now without masks, to finish hijacking what was called democracy and multiply their coffers by investing in the wars of the end of the world…

Now, if, on the one hand, the politics of the successful example (the right, to put it in a simplified way) and the narratives about democracy and freedom have entered into a state of panic and catharsis of confession, on the other (the left), some taboos and totems have been broken forever. For example, suddenly, millions of Americans begin to consider apparent things, such as:

1. Patriotism is another way of silencing the truth and maintaining justice with blindfolds.
2. The problem is not democracy but its substitute: the hijacking of an entire country and the world by the Anglo-Saxon techno-financial oligarchy.
3. The failure of the neoliberal dogma that private corporations do it better and cheaper.
4. The uncontrolled criminality and corruption of parallel governments like the NSA, the CIA, Wall Street, and Silicon Valley.
5. The consensus breakdown on the Empire’s benevolent role. Before the confirmation of Marco Rubio as secretary of state, while he was handcuffed in the Capitol, an activist shouted what millions think: “Rubio is bloodthirsty… he only wants to keep us in a state of perpetual war; free Cuba from the sanctions that kill people. Freedom for Palestine.” Other ex-combatants were arrested for shouting to former Secretary of State Anthony Blinken: “We need money here, not to bomb children in Gaza.”
6. The purchase of politicians, senators, and representatives by the biggest lobbies in Washington. In January 2025, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), referring to Israeli Prime Minister Bejamin Netanyahu and the Israeli lobby AIPAC, said: “Most Americans don’t want us to support a government that kills children, but if you say that, you’re going to face AIPAC and other millionaires and you’re going to lose the election… Many senators tell me, ‘God, what Netanyahu is doing is monstrous, but I can’t vote against him because they’re going to destroy my political career.’ They know that if the corporations are not pleased, they will lose the election…”

None of these criticisms and ideas are new. Many of us have been writing about this since the 1990s. Not before, because we weren’t born. What is new is that, at the same time that the fascist politics of the super-rich takes power in the White House, supported by a majority of the population that consumes their products, a new and growing minority has come out of the closet with a greater awareness of the de facto class struggle.

On Monday the 20, Donald Trump retook office. His grim face alone says much. His followers are not even hopeful. As Jorge Luis Borges would say, they are not united by love but by fear. As the Italian Oriana Fallaci wrote in 2001, which we criticized as the beginning of a dangerous era (“The Slow Suicide of the West” 2002), they are united by “rage and pride.”

Now, we must not lose sight of the fact that the more the nationalist, fascist, and feudal capitalist right progresses, the more evident a break becomes that will turn to the left, as always―and, as never before for a century, in a radical way.