248 - Richard Wolff: Trump, Hitler, and the End of the American Empire

Richard Wolff is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a visiting professor at The New School, where he works on economics in the Marxist tradition. This is Richard’s eighth appearance on Robinson’s Podcast. In his last appearance, episode #243, he and Robinson discussed 2025 and the first weeks of Trump’s presidency, as well as what’s to come. More particularly, they discuss the irrelevance of Donald Trump, his domestic and global policies, China, narratives on the right and left, and the future of the United States. In this episode, they continue the discussion by diving deeper into recent events, Doge, Elon Musk, the relationship between Trump and Hitler, and important historical Marxists. Richard’s latest book is Understanding Capitalism (Democracy at Work, 2024).

Understanding Capitalism (Book): democracyatwork.info/understanding_capitalism

Richard’s Website: rdwolff.com

Economic Update: democracyatwork.info/economicupdate

OUTLINE
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:27 What Do Trump and Hitler Have in Common?
00:09:42 Is This the Democratic Party’s Worst Crisis?
00:14:58 Is Trump’s Economic Policy a Hail Mary?
00:26:29 The Mexican Deportation Crisis
00:30:19 Global Retaliation Against American Tariffs
00:33:29 America’s Big Mistake with Russian Sanctions
00:40:50 Trump’s Big TikTok Mistake
00:47:05 How Adolf Hitler Came to Power in Germany
01:08:40 Does Elon Musk Symbolize the End of America?
01:16:07 How Bosses Lie When They Fire You
01:23:08 On Elon Musk’s Chainsaw Public Relations Disaster
01:28:52 On the Drowning American Empire
01:34:36 On Elon Musk and the Self-Destruction of Tesla
01:39:27 Feudalism, Communism, and the Death of Capitalism
01:46:22 Does China Represent a New Breed of Capitalism?
01:55:16 What Can the United States Do to Beat China?
02:03:46 What Makes Mao an Important Marxist?
02:17:56 Richard Wolff’s Mediocre Ivy League Education
02:23:59 How Mao Made the China of Today
02:40:39 The Myth of European Global Dominance
02:52:08 On Antonio Gramsci and Mussolini
02:57:03 Why Is Gramsci One of the Great Marxists?

Robinson’s Website: robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University.