Trump & Musk Aren't Ready For What They Are Unleashing
The US is sliding towards revolution.
“The revolution’s about to be televised. You picked the right time, but the wrong guy.”
I have never heard such gut-punching opening lines. Lamar is not just a lyrical genius but also profoundly aware of the undercurrents simmering beneath the surface of America whilst remaining totally removed from our modern propaganda-filled social simulacra, giving him an uncanny level of prescience. Go back and listen to ‘euphoria’ again — he predicted everything Drake and his fans would do months ahead of time. His victory over Drake not only put Black music and culture back into the hands of those who created it but also gave Lamar a truly national stage for the first time. And upon taking that stage, those were the first words Lamar uttered. Another telegraphed prediction of the future; this time, not of a pop star’s descent, but of a nation’s. And he is right.
Did you know multiple studies have shown that political revolution directionally correlates with wealth inequality? History has spelt this out time and time again, from the French Revolution to India kicking out the Brits to even the Chinese and Russian revolutions. But here’s the thing: it doesn’t take an entire nation to overthrow the status quo. Researcher Erica Chenoweth, a political scientist at Harvard University, has found that once 3.5% of a population engages in a revolution, it always results in total political change.
Did you also know the US is already pretty damn close to reaching ‘revolution’ levels of wealth inequality and public outrage?
No? Well, let’s compare present-day America to the most famous and bloodthirsty revolution ever: the French Revolution.
In France, just before the revolution, the wealthiest 10% of people owned 90% of the wealth, with the bottom 50% of people owning somewhere between 2% and 3%. Cut to America in 2025, and the top 10% own 70% of the wealth, while the bottom 50% only own 2% of the country’s wealth. For comparison, in modern-day France, the top 10% own 47% of the wealth, which is still considered highly inequitable and is, to this day, causing protests. On top of that, the post-pandemic economy, looming recession, and Trump’s policies are set to transfer a gargantuan amount of American wealth to the top 10%.
In other words, the US’s wealth inequality is already horrific but is set to rapidly reach ‘cut off their heads’ levels.
One of the major causes of the French Revolution was the cost of living. The average person suddenly couldn’t afford essential foods due to the King’s policies, taxes, and poor harvests. While food prices, on average, haven’t increased that much yet in the US (only 1.9% in January), Trump’s tariffs on US consumers and scrapping of environmental and agricultural government bodies are set to make the cost of food soar. Fertilisers, seeds, and major ingredients are set to become unfeasible to import, and because there are practically zero local alternatives available, costs of almost all foodstuffs will skyrocket. On top of that, US agriculture is already suffering under climate change, and scrapping the regulatory bodies making the industry more resilient to this issue sets the stage for famine-like harvests in the near future.
This will exasperate the already financially squeezed public.
But a revolution needs people from across the wealth spectrum. Indeed, another core reason for the French Revolution was that factory owners and the bourgeoisie felt like they had no political power and couldn’t trust the king. Likewise, most millionaire C-suite executives (i.e., CEOs, CFOs, and CTOs) are visibly angry at Trump’s trade plans and policies, as they will demolish small and medium-sized corporations and create monopolies. What’s more, Trump’s flip-flop on tariffs is making it impossible for them to plan, severely impacting their businesses.
In other words, most of the modern bourgeoisie don’t trust Trump.
If a government is buoyant and wealthy, it can stave off these issues and avoid revolution. Indeed, the French government was on its knees during the revolution, thanks to funding the American Revolution. But here’s the thing: Trump and Musk are actively trying to bankrupt the US government.
DOGE isn’t finding fraud and waste. It is cutting vital government services that hold billionaires like Musk to account and produce huge amounts of income for the government. Take IRS agents; DOGE and Trump want to cut this workforce by 20%, despite the fact that every dollar spent on IRS agents returns between $5 and $12 for the government. That is one hell of an investment, and they are cutting this vital income stream! Not to mention that both DOGE and Trump are pushing for even more privatisation, which often actually increases governmental spending, as privatised governmental bodies can negotiate extortionate deals, given that they are often functional monopolies with shareholders hungry for profit.
So, Musk, Trump, and DOGE are severing the government’s income while increasing its spending, but not on social programmes, on privatising vast swathes of the government. This is why studies found that Trump’s economic plan would increase the US deficit by twice that of Harris’, and it is the reason why the US government is barreling towards bankruptcy.
That is it. The stage is set for revolution.
But revolutions don’t have to be violent. The French Revolution became so bloodthirsty because when the masses engaged in politics and protests, it was ignored and undermined by the ruling class. As such, protests lead to sabotage and then to violent revolution.
We forget that our right to vote and protest comes from a compromise with the ruling class to avoid violent revolutions against them. When people can’t actualise and make necessary changes to their lives, questionable means can justify the ends. Indeed, the ruling class justify this, as they use questionable means to meet their ends. Ethics go out the window when you aren’t being treated ethically. That is why heads went literally rolling during the French Revolution, as those aristocrats had indirectly killed and dehumanised thousands.
So, is this happening in the US? Well, yeah, look at Luigi Mangione, who allegedly murdered UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson for denying health coverage to legitimate claims to boost their already sky-high profits, which openly killed people. The murder was unethical, but so were Thompson’s actions. Yet, Americans are twice as likely to have a favourable opinion of Mangione than an unfavourable one.
In short, the masses are happy to take drastic, unethical actions against the current ruling class. In fact, over 33% of Americans see Mangione’s actions as acceptable, which is nearly ten times higher than Chenoweth’s revolution point of no return. America is poised not just for a revolution but a violent one.
So, why hasn’t it happened yet?
Simply put, Trump still has a stable approval rating of around 45%. This is bolstered by the US’s billionaire-owned news industry being wielded as a propaganda tool to subdue and fool the masses and the fact that there hasn’t been enough time for Trump’s actions to properly harm the US population. But cracks are starting to show. The stock market is slumping with a looming recession. Trump’s decapitating of US hegemony by trade partner tariffs and trying to brutalise Ukraine, causing the EU and its partners to move to make their defence and trade independent of the US, will hurt every American deeply. What’s more, even right-wing news corporations and their viewers are beginning to turn on Trump, as evidenced by right-wing political pundits’ recent exasperation with Trump and Republican majority town hall protests boiling over.
If the stage is set for a violent revolution, this gradual disenfranchisement will pull the trigger.
As it stands, I don’t think it is a question of if, but when. The US population have inherently known for decades that they are being exploited by a pseudo-democratic corporate plutocracy. That is why Trump is so appealing to so many, as he hypocritically promised to change that status quo, and that is why there was a violent insurrection to put him back in power. People know something is wrong and are ready to revolt. They chose the right time but the wrong guy.
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Sources: UN, IMF, UCP, CUP, CUP, CADTM, VC, Statista, Britannica, Unison, CNN, ProPublica, YouGov, BBC, Le Monde, Fortune, BBC