One of the accusations against Trump by Kamala Harris and other liberals during the election campaign was that he was supposedly an “isolationist” who would harm U.S.’s position worldwide and thus its “national security.” 

In reality, the “I” word to describe Trump is not “isolationist” but IMPERIALIST—bloodthirsty, mass-murdering imperialist. Just look at his January 7 press conference, where Trump

• refused to rule out the use of military force to seize the Panama Canal, because it is “vital to our country.” He had recently threatened to retake the canal by force if the Panamanian government, which administers it, did not bend to his demands to lower rates for passage of U.S. ships and cut China out of any role in the canal.
• declared he will push for more U.S. control over Greenland (over the objections of Denmark, a member of the U.S.-led NATO military alliance; Greenland is a dependent, autonomous territory of Denmark), saying the U.S. needs it “for national security purposes.” Like with the Panama Canal, he refused to rule out use of military force.
• said “all hell will break out in the Middle East” if Hamas doesn’t release the Israeli hostages held in Gaza by the time he takes office. This would mean even more terror and destruction for the Palestinian people on top of the U.S.-backed genocide over the past 15 months.
• declared in regards to Mexico, “We're going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring that covers a lot of territory.”
• talked about making Canada, also a NATO member, the 51^st U.S. state because it would be “much better for national security.”

Trump tried to come off as some kind of cold-blooded gangster by threatening not only U.S. foes but “allies” or countries principally under U.S. domination. He served notice to all that the U.S. would be demanding much more submissiveness from its “allies” (thus his humiliation of Canada, Mexico, Denmark). Biden/Harris have been fully backing Israel in its genocide of Palestinian people in Gaza, while hypocritically trying to pose as having “humanitarian” concerns—Trump made clear that when the U.S. carries out or supports murder, mayhem and horrific brutality (in Gaza and elsewhere), it would do so even more openly and ruthlessly. He sent an unmistakable signal that MAGA fascist America would not even pretend to be bound by treaties or national sovereignty (like with the threats toward Panama, Denmark, Mexico, and Canada). And he was staking an open, arrogant claim of undisputed American control over all of the Western Hemisphere, from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the tip of South America, which the U.S. imperialists consider their home base and “back yard.”

China in the Cross-Hairs—and the Threat of World War

Compared to Trump's first term, the U.S. imperialists now face a world with even more dangers and challenges to their global domination, especially from the rival imperialists in China. Even as there are extremely sharp and unprecedented splits between the MAGA fascist and “mainstream” (basically, the Democratic) sections of the U.S. ruling class, a consensus has emerged among the rulers as a whole that China poses the main threat to American dominance of the world and that there is a need to step up preparations for war. During his term, Biden openly departed from the decades-long position of presidents before him by declaring repeatedly that the U.S. would send American troops to Taiwan if China moves to seize the island by force. (China’s rulers claim Taiwan, now governed independently of China, as part of their sovereign territory and have made clear their intention to “reunify” the island as part of China.) Biden also moved to block China’s ability to purchase advanced semiconductor chips, which are crucial to the modern economy, from not only U.S. companies but other countries as well—a step described by some as “an act of war.”

At his press conference, Trump also issued threats against China, with his accusations that China is supposedly “running” the Panama Canal and that Chinese ships are “all over the place” around Greenland. This is yet another indication that Trump is aiming to go after China and prepare for war in an even more openly aggressive and domineering way—with America much more directly asserting its imperialist interests and wielding control. 

The rise of Trump/MAGA fascism 2.0 means the world could be pushed in an even more accelerated way toward an all-out fight between nuclear-armed imperialists over which is the dominant power globally—a war that holds the real possibility of bringing an end to humanity. This is criminal insanity, driven by the needs and dynamics of the system of capitalism-imperialism—a system that functions, and can only function, by viciously exploiting and murderously oppressing masses of people throughout the world… and by beating out imperialist rivals and regional challengers, through wars of mass murder and destruction if necessary, including the use of nuclear weapons.

In this light, revolutionary leader Bob Avakian’s words ring with urgency:

We, the people of the world, can no longer afford to allow these imperialists to continue to dominate the world and determine the destiny of humanity. They need to be overthrown as quickly as possible. And it is a scientific fact that we do not have to live this way.

The Democrats cannot be relied on to fight Trump/MAGA fascism—because, as a ruling class party, they are driven by the same needs and dynamics of this capitalist-imperialist system. As this article has made clear, Biden did not differ with Trump over whether to aggressively go after America’s rivals for chief oppressor, exploiter and murderer in the world—the difference was (and is) over how.

As Bob Avakian pointed out in social media message Revolution #103, “Why Democrats are aiding and facilitating fascism, what this shows about this system, and what decent people need to be doing”:

For the Democrats, the “stability” of the rule of this system of capitalism-imperialism, even in the form of fascism, is more important than actually defeating fascism.

And:

Once more, the Democrats themselves are driving home the crucial point I have repeatedly emphasized (for example, in my article FASCISM AND THE WHOLE SYSTEM, available at revcom.us): The Democrats, and the “mainstream” section of the ruling class that they represent, cannot fight the fascists the way they need to be fought—and this fight needs to be waged as part of fighting to abolish this whole system.