People are righteously angry at Elon Musk and the whole DOGE offensive that Trump has enabled and supported. Righteously angry at the heartless attacks on every program, every concession, and every agency that has something to do with helping people to deal with the horrors perpetrated by the “normal operation” of this system. Righteously angry at the massive firings of people who worked in those agencies, as well as the humiliation, demonization, and intimidation visited upon those who still work in them. Righteously and rightly furious at the Musk team’s careless rifling through people’s personal information at the IRS and Social Security, and Musk’s labeling of Social Security as a “Ponzi scheme” (fraud)—which is clearly preparing the ground for its elimination. And very righteously angry at the Nazi salute, the chainsaw arrogance and threat, the nostalgia for apartheid South Africa, and the utter contempt in which he so clearly holds everyday people.

But here’s the thing: Elon Musk is PART of the problem… but he’s not the heart of the problem. Elon Musk is a symptom—and we need to understand where that symptom comes from and what it tells us about the disease. But he is not the disease itself. To speak plainly, Elon Musk is indeed one of the main leaders of the Trump/MAGA fascist movement now in power and he is most definitely a product of the capitalist-imperialist system that has produced that movement… but that movement is bigger than him. And that movement—led by Trump—is what has to be driven from power, through massive sustained action of millions demanding that TRUMP MUST GO!

Relatedly: while Musk may be enriching himself through these actions in different ways, his motives run much deeper than piling more billions onto those he already has. Musk wants to wield power to advance the fascist remaking of all of society as far and as fast as possible; he is playing a point man role in that project. Musk, like Trump himself, does not see a contradiction between moving forward the fascist program and enriching himself. 

But Musk has shown himself willing to take financial losses to advance his political influence: look at his purchase of Twitter, which he transformed into X. He lost money on that—a lot—but he gained an invaluable megaphone and organizing tool for the fascist political program and ideology and for advancing his own influence within that movement. 

The contention between Musk and other members of this Trump/MAGA fascist regime is real—there are several factions making up this regime and they have their differences that come out on different questions, sometimes fairly sharply. (We’ll get into some of the content and history of those conflicts in later issues.) But what brings them all together is the project of shattering the previous form of capitalist-imperialist rule and putting in the open dictatorship of fascism. Fascism means the evisceration (tearing the entrails out) of constitutional rights and the rule of law. In the U.S. today, fascism is marked by extreme hatred of immigrants and contempt for other countries, by extreme hatred of women and LGBT people, by a vicious white supremacy intent on wiping out any accurate understanding of America’s roots in the enslavement of Black people and the genocide of the Native Indians, and by the overturning of any reforms and concessions—however halting and ineffectual—that have been made to oppressed people through the struggles of the past 60 years. (For a fuller definition go here.)

Getting this right has consequences: if you don’t understand what you are fighting, you will not be able to fight it effectively. You will, instead, be derailed into dead ends. And there is a force that is right now leading you into that dead end: the Democratic Party. 

Here is the Democratic senator Chris Murphy from Connecticut—the supposed “rising star” of the anti-Trump Democrats—putting forward the strategy behind focusing people’s attacks on “Musk and the billionaires” (rather than on Trump, and the fascist movement he heads):

It’s an easy story: Elon Musk and the billionaires have taken over government to steal from the American people and enrich themselves. That’s the message … if we repeat it over and over again, [the Republicans] won’t win.

It may be an “easy story”—but the problem is that it is not true. It is at best a half-truth—and a profoundly misleading one at that. Trump/MAGA have taken over government to reshape American society in every sphere. How, for instance, does the firing of Black and female commanding officers in the military and the campaign to reinstate the names of military bases which commemorate Confederate generals help the billionaires enrich themselves? How does the all-out demonization of and assault against immigrants help billionaires enrich themselves? In actual fact, some business owners who back Trump/MAGA fascists will be financially hurt by this policy. (Musk himself, for that matter, is in a dispute with the equally fascist Steve Bannon—who heads up a different trend within the fascist camp—over Musk’s desire to maintain visas for people who work in high tech.) But they have a “larger” goal that makes many of them willing to tolerate some things that might work against their particular interests: and that larger goal, is again, the overall remaking of society and the more unfettered domination of America over the world.

What is the true story—and the right way to understand the extreme situation we face? Bob Avakian, in his February 28 message “Trump’s fascist rule, like Hitler’s before him, is a regime of horrors—and is completely illegitimate,” begins by comparing Trump to Hitler, and he goes on to say that:

Even with particular differences, what is happening now with Trump’s fascist rule also involves a terrible momentum that will involve massive, monstrous crimes against humanity, in this country and in the world overall.

More, this is happening in circumstances that are even more dangerous for humanity than those at the time of Hitler—especially because of the already far advanced destruction of the environment, which Trump’s fascist policies will further accelerate, and the increasing danger of direct warfare between the U.S. and other nuclear-armed capitalist-imperialist powers, such as China and Russia (and here, as well, Trump’s reckless imperialist gangsterism heightens the danger of a nuclear war).

Sit with this for a minute. 

And then think about it: what would you say to someone who told you that the story of Hitler’s rise “was easy” and that it was about billionaires enriching themselves? If you knew anything about the history of Nazi Germany, you would say that such an “analysis” was at minimum extremely and misleadingly narrow and tell him to come back when he had something serious to say! And what would you say—or what should you say—to someone who tells you that not only is it “easy,” but that (as implied in Murphy’s quote) the key thing is “a simple message” designed for the elections set to take place a full 18 months from now? You might want to point out that fascism is piling up casualties now, that Trump and MAGA are moving toward far worse on a schedule way more immediate than 18 months, and that it is dangerously naïve to put so much faith in the idea that the 2026 elections will go off like clockwork, in a business-as-usual fashion. Indeed, if you have any sense of reality, you should tell him to stop promoting dangerous and literally killing illusions. 

There are reasons why so many Democratic politicians find this stance of Murphy appealing; and to get into that, go here and here. But the key thing to keep a firm grip on at this point is this:

Before Trump’s fascist rule can become fully consolidated and carry out even far worse horrors than what it is already perpetrating, it must be defeated through powerful mass mobilization—overcoming all “divide and conquer” schemes, uniting all who can be united, from many different viewpoints and perspectives, in actively opposing, defying and resisting this fascism, in continually growing numbers—moving to quickly involve millions, determined to create such a profound political crisis that Trump cannot govern the country and continue to implement his fascist program, with all its terrible consequences.
—Bob Avakian, Trump’s fascist rule, like Hitler’s before him, is a regime of horrors—and is completely illegitimate

Fully facing reality, and doing what needs to be done to change that reality, is life-and-death for millions and possibly billions in the situation humanity now faces.