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): ⁠https://www.democracyatwork.info/unde... Richard’s Website: ⁠https://www.rdwolff.com⁠ Economic Update: ⁠https://www.democracyatwork.info/econ... 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? 00:26:29 The Mexican Deportation Crisis 00:30:19 Global Retaliation Against American Tariffs 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: ⁠http://robinsonerhardt.com⁠ Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University.