A new theory explains why Trump keeps threatening global takeovers

[WestMichRad]

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/01/trump-neo-royalism-abe-newman-greenland/

(Snip)
“Neo-royalism says that the state, the country, is not the key actor,” Abe Newman, a political scientist at Georgetown who co-wrote a paper coining the term, told me. “It’s groups of elites that are organized around political leaders. That system doesn’t play by the same rules.”

“What we propose, neo-royalism, is basically just saying to begin with, the state is not the key actor like the country. It’s groups of elites that are organized around political leaders. That system doesn’t play by the same rules, but it is very inherent to how humans think about international politics.”
(snip)
“I think a lot of people start with the idea that Trump is about spheres of influence balancing against China. Sometimes people call it America First. But that’s a red herring. But really, what you’re seeing is a set of foreign policy decisions that are about accumulating status and material wealth and then concentrating that in that group of insider elites. This is about status hierarchy, the relations of individuals.“

“Why does Trump have a big fight with India and put huge tariffs on India? It’s because Modi won’t recognize Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize. It’s not about competing against China. Why did we sell lots of semiconductors to the UAE? It doesn’t make a lot of sense from an America First perspective. So what’s going on there? It’s about the amount of money that the UAE is going to put into World Liberty Financial, the crypto company that’s associated with Steve Witkoff and their children. It’s about seeing the global chessboard as a site of status and material wealth. The same thing with Venezuela. People think it’s the oil companies that are pushing Trump to take over Venezuela. They’re not. That’s not the story. It’s about how Trump sees Venezuela as a resource that he can then distribute across his allies.”

Apologies if this has been previously posted, but I think it’s important and is a very credible viewpoint. It says the billionaire “class” is creating a new world order where they, not traditional political entities of nations, control everything.

[Farmer-Rick]

1. That's an interesting analysis

It explains the psychology of a crazy psychopath. All the people in the country don't matter. Just the group of fascist he momentarily hangs iwith count. That group of neo-royals can change at a drop of a hat if the king decides he doesn't like them though.

But it's a distinction without a difference. Whatever their psychological out look, they are pedophiles that are demented psycho fascists.

[SharonAnn]

10. That's basically what Curtis Yarvin and his acolyte, Peter Thiel want.

[valleyrogue]

15. These psychos are free to leave the US.

They are “libertarian” whack jobs.

[Ocelot II]

2. I think this is pretty obvious. Trump has never cared about the well-being of the American people

or the best interests of the US as a nation. What he cares about is the US as both a symbol and a source of his personal power and wealth, which he can use to buy off other oligarchs to cement his position and, not incidentally, fluff his ego. Why does he really want Greenland, for example? Not only because of its mineral resources - those could be purchased without annexing the whole country - but because if it became a US territory he could show off a Mercator projection map, which shows Greenland as 3x its actual size, displaying the US as by far the largest country in the western hemisphere. He's an imperialist, an oligarch and a megalomaniac all at the same time. Not a great combination.

[underpants]

26. Agreed. I feel as though Trump's "elites" are also the tech broligarchy

They can completely shape much of the public’s mind and will never feel the ramifications. They might just decide there’s no use extending the existence of useless eaters in an almost Sky Net kind of self actualization. They have tons of security and “get aways” in New Zealand and elsewhere I’m sure.

It’s all very reminiscent of the movie “Mountainhead” just few months ago.

[Seinan Sensei]

48. He wants Greenland so he can rename it Trumpland

[Kid Berwyn]

3. Neo-Royalism

It’s the New Feudalism. Since Ronnie Raygun, the rich have refused to pay the serfs a living wage.

[Irish_Dem]

4. This is more than obvious. Duh. Global billionaires are the new ruling class.

Trump is just the snake oil salesman.

[Attilatheblond]

55. Warlords of the 21st century

[Irish_Dem]

56. Yes global crime syndicate mob bosses and warlords.

[Attilatheblond]

60. No nations, no national laws, only renegade war lords thumbing their noses at law, people, decency

[Irish_Dem]

63. Our planet is descending into darkness.

Perhaps a new dark age.

Survival is the major goal.

[Attilatheblond]

64. I know some middle aged women (I am OLD) who are rooting for 'the big giant meteor'

and they are not kidding.

I really feel we are not one species, but two; one with empathy and one with NO empathy or limits on what they would do to others. Being a 'born again pagan agnostic' I can't help but wonder if what is going on between empathy & no empathy is actually 'the final battle' alluded to in that book of weird conjecture, the bible.

[Irish_Dem]

65. The battle between good and evil is the iconic human condition.

We see it writ large now.

[Clouds Passing]

5. Same old Imperialism. Humanity needs to be done with this way of life.

[creon]

6. True

It works well.

Trump wants the power to be able to act out needs.
He cannot be satisfied though

[C_U_L8R]

7. He's just getting started

Trump just got a taste of killing and he likes the feeling of power it gives him.
Ever the coward, his next victims will still be weaker opponents but Trump
will grow more emboldened and reckless. This gets a lot worse before it gets better.

[underpants]

28. Yeah and his mouth. A reporter asks "What about Greenland?" He of course says "Yes"

or that anything is possible. He’s not going to say No. Suddenly THAT becomes policy. No one can make him back up on it and there’s no way he’s even hinting about being wrong.

Cuba? Yes (I am all powerful)
Mexico? See above.

[highplainsdem]

8. I think the usual term for this is oligarchy.

[kentuck]

11. They were given the opportunity...

...and they grabbed it.

[moniss]

12. Much like Putin has done. nt

[cachukis]

13. It has now become "royal" entertainment for his

loyal subjects.

[wiggs]

14. THIS IS CORRECT. And has been in the works for 50 years, globally. MSM is part of the new royalists now. nt

[Martin Eden]

16. Don't muddy the waters with alternative terms for what this is.

It is FASCISM, pure and simple.

Multiple different terms will just confuse people at a time when clarity is needed.

[Bev54]

17. There is an organization of international actors on the right that works to see

the new world order from the right, it is IDU International Democracy Union. It is headed up by Stephen Harper, previous conservative PM of Canada, a real dipshit. Many of us in Canada are very aware of the work they are doing and how they have propped up our opposition leader, Pierre Poilievre. It is just that not enough of us know about it and the media wants to completely ignore it altogether. I have not heard one word about it from legacy media. Read a little about it, I am sure they thought they found a great partner in Trump but Trump cannot control his bully instincts and keeps going off script.

I recommend that people make themselves familiar with this organization but whether they can hold it together with the big egos of some of the leaders is a question.

[bronxiteforever]

18. K&R. Royal Houses run the Country. House of Musk,

Bezos, Zuckerberg, Ellison , etc.

They need serfs and we are on that menu. Indentured servitude is going to make a comeback. If the economic equilibrium of the US does not change-war, famine, revolution and water wars will change it.

[Attilatheblond]

61. Considering our access to reasonable health care is tied to our employment, Indentured Servitude

has been here for decades, if not a century.

[bronxiteforever]

62. Excellent point

[Prairie Gates]

19. What does this "theory" help us understand that we didn't already understand?

Nothing, that's what.

Tell me something that I didn't know when I woke up this morning.

[Joinfortmill]

32. Kinda rude. What's your point? All it does is alienate you.

[azureblue]

20. More like

He's lost his mind, and all he does is react to whatever is in front of him, and to whoever slights him. He can't reason any more, and his speeches prove it. Pedo Don should be in an asylum.

[Scruffy1]

21. The answer to Venezuela is Paul Singer.

The well known "vulture capitalist" managed to pick up Venezuela owned Citgo through a bankruptcy sale last year. The bankruptcy was caused by the sanctions forcing Citgo to buy product from outside the company. Now the that the oil is available he stands to make 5 billion dollars, or over a 1000% profit on his investment in the 2024 election.

[Uncle Joe]

22. Kicked and recommended with one quibble

There is a cabal of global oligarchs yanking the world's strings dominating nations including our own, but I hate the term "elite" to describe them.

That term can imply some form of superiority other than just financial clouding the issue of their character, and/or ability.

Thanks for the thread WestMichRad

[hay rick]

23. Trump's primary motive is to enable looting.

He wants loot, in its many forms, for himself and his "friends." What he doesn't take for himself or his family he wants to steer to people who can give him bribes, kickbacks, or future favors. The whole King Don meme, with the crown and the gaudy, gleaming gold accessories is exactly how he thinks of himself.

His long history of accounting fictions designed to land him in the Forbes 400 foreshadowed his current fixations. His cupidity is in full display in the Venezuela attack. The episode also displays the frightening combination of his increasingly unconstrained exercise of power and diminished mental capacity.

[PatrickforB]

24. This is what fascist oligarchy IS. I've been talking about the billionaire parasites for years now, and AOC

never said truer words when she said that every billionaire is a FAILURE in tax policy.

[Raven123]

25. Why a new name for an old problem? Bernie called it: Oligarchy

Neo-royalism is just a fancy term that I suspect will only work in certain circles. Try a different term. How about Putinism if oligarchy turns people off because it is spoken by someone who identifies as a democratic socialist?

[Hieronymus Phact]

27. how about Feudalism

That seem to work also as the natural end state of oligarchy.

[Raven123]

37. Possibly.

Recognizable. Whatever we call it, need to immediately define it and repeat it over and over

[hay rick]

41. I prefer feudalism to fascism as a description.

An unmistakable element of feudalism was the division of society into classes with different rights and functions. I see the current trajectory as restoring the bulk of the population to the equivalent of the third estate in the ancien regime. Peasants will have little wealth or property and will have restricted rights. I would not be surprised to see an expansion of personal service contracts that would create a functional equivalent of slavery.

[unblock]

29. Accurate, though implying these assholes are "royal" in any way is far too kind.

They all excel at leveraging privilege to grift more than anyone else. That's about it.

[Joinfortmill]

30. Jeezus. I'm really sick of his shit. And so are a lot of others. He may just bite off more than he can chew.

[pandr32]

31. They need to be checked.

We must stop giving them status as though they are special.
This also describes their sense of entitlement and superiority. They see the leaders of countries as their game pieces.

[BumRushDaShow]

33. From "Network" (this year will be its 50th anniversary)

[Tetrachloride]

34. welcome to 5000 BCE

this is not new

[Ol Janx Spirit]

35. What we have now is a plutocratic kakistocracy.

Calling it neo-royalism is fine, but it doesn't really capture the "government by the least suitable or competent citizens of a state" element in my mind.

America put a rich idiot in charge and he put a bunch of other rich idiots in positions of power. That's a plutocratic kakistocracy....

[ShazzieB]

43. I agree with this analysis.

[markodochartaigh]

36. The old

"L'État, c'est moi."

[Zackzzzz]

38. Ms. Shaffer, my history teacher

told me back in the late 50's, that this country was
run/controlled by about 100 very wealthy families.
And really way back, all the way back in time.
Silly me, I thought my vote counted.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

51. We have to disempower

And make poor 100 or so families.

[flashman13]

39. I read the full article. In the end we are merely seeing a repeat of the rise and fall of Nazi Germany.

The war in Europe was pure brigandage. It was simply robbery to benefit the few. The logic was simple. We can do it because we can. Ultimately Hitler's maniacal over reach led to the Nazi's downfall and the utter destruction of Germany with much of Europe as collateral damage.

Game of Thromes is a good anology. Kings Landing destroyed. House of Lannister destroyed. The End. Roll credits.

[SergeStorms]

40. Neo-royalists, same as oligarchs,

And this damned country is full of them.

[Justice matters.]

42. It's the Vladroe Doctrine applied to the western hemisphere.

State-sponsored terrorism is their tool.

Ya think Osama bin Laden was bad? Think again! Millions of deads coming (already started with the pandemic).

[cksmithy]

44. I read the linked mother jones article and the linked article to

Further Back to the Future: Neo-Liberalism, the trump administration, and the emerging international system. Published online by Cambridge University Press. It makes a lot of sense and helps explain to me why a third or more of our country voted for who they think is a god king for president. he thinks he a king and is making other countries treat him a like a king, like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, etc.

[paulkienitz]

45. Been saying for a while that Trump is monarchist rather than fascist (though the MAGA movement is fascist).

I'm glad some others are starting to see it.

[neohippie]

46. I will add to this theory some of my own speculation

After 9-11 many of the worlds oligarchs, especially those who deal in illicit trades, like the Russian mobsters, Asian Triads, other international syndicates, were getting hurt by the US Department of Justice Financial Crimes Divisions who were trying to stop the flow of money to terrorist organizations well FINCIN was doing such a great job of disrupting money laundering through new international baking regulations designed to report suspected financial crimes that it was hurting all of the oligarchs across the globe.

They made it their mission to put the useful idiot into the Whitehouse so that they could dismantle and weaken the US. They needed to weaken US Hegemony they wanted to take power away from all the liberal democratic institutions, that not only chased their financial crimes, but that they feel like cost them money through environmental, safety and banking regulations

They made a plan to attack the US government but from the inside and strip our federal agencies that now had international reach because of cooperation that was originally setup to combat terrorism but was also affecting just business in general.

People like Elon Musk who has business with these oligarchs, it was Starlink that was allowing the Asian syndicates to operate all the call center scams that operated out of the autonomous regions in Asia Musk was providing the internet to those criminals

Also all the billionaires and even the sanctioned states, learned how to avoid a lot of banking regulations that were used not only to enforce US sanctions on trade but skirt money laundering reporting by using block chain currencies like Bitcoin, that is why the tech bros and Trump and many others are so heavily invested in those things. They have realized they can evade the regulations and laws that were in place that way

It all makes sense when you look at what is going on all over the world through that lens

Musk and his businesses like Space X and Tesla were also under investigation by many federal agencies. These oligarchs banded together with people from other interested countries, like those in the Middle East and even Israel to make sure that Trump got elected so that they could then follow through with their plans many outlined in Project 2025 to weaken all of our federal agencies including the Justice Department.

They are using the immigration issue as a front and a distraction so that all of our resource are focused on that while lots of other crimes no longer have the resources to be investigated.

This global cabal, helped to buy the Supreme Court to help them with their mission of weakening federal agencies

The federal government for too long was there to stand up and protect citizens instead of working for the billionaire oligarchs, but with Trump's second term all of that has changed. The corruption is so absolute that its right out in the open. The powerful oligarchs no longer care about hiding it because they have corrupted our political system to a point where its about impossible to stand up to them.

They have stacked our government against our own country and our citizens best interests.

This is what is going on non of these billionaires have any reason to worry about what happens to average or vulnerable citizens of the US or any other country they already control 90% of all wealth on the planet they will never be satisfied with the wealth and power that they held in the past they want it all and they want it now

[BarbD]

47. Money! Money! Money!

It's all possible with money.

[BurnDoubt]

49. Heritage Foundation

THIS is the reason we declined to add our weight on the scales of Law And Order at the ICC.
They KNEW this moment would come, because it’s been part of their Plan all along.
It kinda looks like this Plan has been a long time coming, since the before the Weimar Republic fell. Hitler couldn’t get it done, so they moved in over here.

I love a good conspiracy theory.
Maybe we’ll find out at Schroedinger’s next Birthday

[I_UndergroundPanther]

50. Billionaires are sociopaths

So of course these narcissistic cruel Nazi loving neo confederate pieces of shit want to rule the world. They will never be satisfied.

[Rstrstx]

52. A much simpler answer is that Trump has just lost it

[Beartracks]

53. Reminds me of a scene in the X-Files -- a flashback of the Cigarette Smoking guy as young man.

He was with a super-secret cabal of elites as they discussed their plans for the world, even down to the nitty-gritty of who would be declared winner of Best Picture at the Oscars that year. EVERYTHING for regular people was just an illusion of freedom.

================

[Skittles]

54. in other words TRUMP IS A BIG FUCKING MANBABY

gawd HE IS SO FUCKING PATHETIC and don't even get me STARTED on his FUCKED UP FANBASE

[OldBaldy1701E]

57. What do you mean, 'creating'? They have already done it! (n/t)

[MaeScott]

58. Absolutely this. The LOVE of money

…is a very real root of evil. And they just can’t get enough of it.

[BradBo]

59. The rich have Trump ear.

He listens to the last person he talks too, especially if their rich. And they also play on his deep, deep racism and misogyny. That’s why he has people like Miller and Cheung advising him.
Trumps a simpleton,and YES, he’s genuinely afraid of dying..
That’s why in his weak moments he was fretting about not going to heaven. He literally talked to the media about that. He’s scared as hell of going to jail to for his Epstein crimes also and scared to die because he’s got a weird view of the afterlife.
I think he’s so stupid he can’t even be a good atheist.