Is Plutopopulism the Greatest American Swindle?
By Tom Kagy | 14 Oct, 2025
Exploiting working-class anxieties to install policies that profit the wealthy has become an epic American political scam.
The anxieties of the working class are many and easily exploited by politicians without allegiance to truth or principles.
Those anxieties have been masterfully exploited by Donald Trump and his MAGA movement to gain the power to transform our nation's policies in ways that leave the working class feeling gratified by what they perceive as payback while being left with even a smaller piece of the American economic pie.
Where did that missing piece of pie go? Into the waiting mouths of the top 1% in income and assets.
With each passing decade the income gap between the working and upper classes have widened, making the bottom half feel increasingly left out of today's America. It's little wonder that they resent every vestige of the social and cultural evolution toward a liberal, globalized society and see it as parts of a machine designed to push them out and replace them with immigrants, some of whom seem to be enjoying higher incomes and social status than most native-born Americans.
This makes the American working class yearn to return to a time when they were in the mainstream. No matter that such an era never actually existed except in movies about the postwar years when the struggles of the rest of the world made Americans feel blessed. Someone like Trump understands this impulse and exploited it masterfully with the Make American Great Again slogan.
But once in power he has done everything possible to squeeze wealth from the working class and transfer it to the wealthy. To start with tariffs work as a massive — worth perhaps $400 billion per year — regressive tax on the working class — the biggest single tax increase of all time. His Big Beautiful Bill then seeks to deny health care tax credits to low-income families — worth perhaps $100 billion — so the wealthy and their corporations can get tax cuts worth an estimated $700 billion.
All the while Trump's aggressive deportation push, assault on elite universities and foreign students, and deploying National Guard troops into liberal cities make MAGA dupes feel the gratification of pushing back against the liberal establishment.
This may well be the greatest political and financial scam the US has ever seen.
Just to show that this scenario isn't merely a figment of my imagination, I enlisted one of my efficient AI research assistants to document that this state of affairs has been perceived by others too, with the prompt:
Given the impact [of Trump policies], could MAGA and Trump be instruments of a cunning and subtle strategy by the wealthy to improve their economic fortunes?
Gemini:
The argument that MAGA and Trump could be instruments of a cunning strategy by the wealthy to improve their economic fortunes is a recurring theme in political and economic commentary, often described as a form of "plutopopulism" or an alliance between populist rhetoric and plutocratic policy.
This view is supported by the stark disconnect between the populist anti-establishment rhetoric and the regressive economic policies that ultimately favor the very wealthy and large corporations.
The "Cunning Strategy" Argument:
Populist Rhetoric as a Distraction:
The Appeal: The MAGA movement's core appeal is based on a narrative that identifies the problem as "global elites," "corrupt establishment politicians," and foreign influence (via immigration and unfair trade).1 This resonates strongly with the economic anxiety and cultural grievances of a large non-wealthy, working-class base.2
The Effect: This rhetoric is seen as a highly effective political camouflage. By focusing public anger on cultural issues, immigration, and foreign trade partners, the movement directs attention away from the domestic policies—namely the massive tax cuts—that disproportionately enrich the economic elite.
Delivering Plutocratic Policy:
The Tax Bill: The most significant and analyzed component of this strategy is the tax legislation. Economic analysis consistently shows that the net financial benefit (after accounting for tariffs) is overwhelmingly concentrated at the very top of the income scale (the top 1% and corporations), while most middle- and low-income households see marginal benefits or even a net loss.3 This confirms that the primary material outcome of the agenda is a massive upward transfer of wealth.4
Deregulation: The agenda heavily prioritizes deregulation across industries like fossil fuels, which provides immediate, measurable financial benefits to the owners and investors in those sectors.
Donors as Beneficiaries: Large political donors from industries like finance, tech, and oil and gas have been shown to spend heavily to support the movement, and in return, the administration has often advanced policies that align directly with those donors' financial interests (e.g., specific tax breaks, regulatory rollbacks, or fast-tracking projects).5
The Political Alliance:
The overall effect is an unusual but powerful political coalition: A mass base motivated by a strong populist, nationalist, and anti-globalist cultural message, supporting a political program whose principal material benefit is accrued by a tiny segment of the wealthiest class.
In essence, critics argue that the success of the MAGA movement allows a set of deeply unpopular, plutocratic economic policies to be enacted under the protective cover of a highly successful, anti-establishment, populist political brand.

(Image by Gemini)
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