The Trump Coalition Wants to End Democracy as We Know It

Breakdown of four groups who want a few billionaires and certain religious zealots to consolidate their political power.

Peter Montague for Common Dreams

The Trump coalition includes four groups of people:

1. The MAGA (“make America great again”) base, mostly rural white men and women;
2. A group of Silicon Valley billionaires known as the PayPal Mafia;
3. A separate political movement called “religious nationalists”; and
4. The Trump crime family itself.

All four groups share one basic aim: to degrade our one-person-one-vote election system so a few billionaires and certain religious zealots can consolidate their political power to eliminate free and fair elections to become even more controlling and richer than they already are.

Here are brief descriptions of the four groups.

1: The MAGA Base: Who Are They?

The hardcore, mostly rural MAGA base can be understood as an echo of the Confederacy. Philosophically, many of them are the same people who tried to destroy the United States to preserve slavery via the Civil War (1861-1865). In their view, the basic ideas that inspired the founding of the U.S. (1776-1788) are wrong: All humans are not created equal and should not have equal rights under law. In 2022, MAGA believers included about 15% of the U.S. adult population, or about 39 million out of 258 million adults.

DISCLOSURE: Peter is a valued old friend. We collaborated often when I was organizing director at the organization now known as the Center for Health and Environmental Justice especially on issues that involving fighting corporate crime.

The MAGA Base: What Do They Want?

For many MAGA believers, President Donald Trump has been sent by God to make American great again, restoring white power. To many of them, white men naturally should dominate all people of color and all women. To varying degrees, many of them scorn foreigners, the poor, the disabled, the elderly, LGBTQIA people, and anyone they think looks down upon them (the mainstream media, Hollywood, and college types, among others).

White MAGA confederates share a seething resentment that they are losing the power and privilege that they have always taken for granted. Trump is their retribution, and many of them find community by rejoicing in his sadistic cruelty.

Of course, they want to restrict the vote. To achieve that goal, they are working to limit or eliminate the right to “due process” guaranteed in the Constitution, which is a step toward their goal of curbing the authority of the judicial branch of government. They seek freedom—freedom to do whatever they want to whomever they please, and they have made real progress.

2: The PayPal Mafia: Who Are They?

The PayPal Mafia is a loosely-affiliated group of billionaires in California’s Silicon Valley with roots in apartheid South Africa. Nazi-saluting Elon Musk is the most famous of them, though Peter Thiel is likely more influential. Many have become devotees of a man named Curtis Yarvin, a racist and avowed monarchist who believes democracy is unworkable and has failed. Yarvin is friends with Vice President JD Vance, whose political career was launched and funded by Peter Thiel.

The PayPal Mafia: What Do They Want?

The PayPal Mafia wants the U.S. to be run by a king, whom they would call a “CEO” (but which Curtis Yarvin has bluntly called “a dictator”). Seriously. They want the nation run like a corporation because corporations are “efficient” (meaning tightly controlled). Another term for what they want is “techno-fascism.”

This “tech broligarchy” (which reveres unlimited male power) wants to “get government off its back” as it continues to create and sustain gigantic monopolies of dubious legality like Google, Apple, Microsoft, Meta, PayPal, Palantir, and so forth—while they freely explore the profit potential of crypto currencies and artificial intelligence, among other dangerous wild-west technologies. Obviously, they oppose one-person one-vote democracy, which might eventually break up their monopolies and curb their dangerous tech gambles.

3: Religious Nationalists: Who Are They?

Religious nationalism includes a large group of people who share an overwhelming desire for political power to eliminate democracy and who are exploiting religion to achieve that goal.

As Katherine Stewart has shown in two well-researched books, The Power Worshippers and Money, Lies, and God, this is not a religious movement. It is a radical anti-democracy political movement dressed up in religious disguise.

About one-third of U.S. adults (roughly 78 million people) either strongly support (26 million) or partially or moderately support (52 million) religious nationalism. Although they are often called Christian nationalists, their actions and goals have little to do with the teachings of Jesus—feed the hungry, house the homeless, welcome the stranger. None of that.

Christian nationalists are Donald Trump’s largest group of devoted supporters. Two out of three completely or mostly agree that God ordained Trump to win the 2024 election. Without religious nationalist support, Trump would never have become president. So, their wish is his command.

Religious Nationalists: What Do They Want?

As Katherine Stewart has shown, religious nationalists want political power so they can eliminate democracy from the United States. 

• They want to end the separation of church and state; 
• eliminate public education and, in its place, substitute particular religious teachings; 
• ban abortion nationwide and restrict access to birth control; 
• deprive gay people of the right to marry and rescind laws that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation; 
• eliminate no-fault divorce and restore “traditional” family roles in which men dominate; 
• pack the federal judiciary with religious nationalists; 
• allow corporations to discriminate openly against female employees (denying them access to birth control); 
• declare “war” on progressive social policies and on “critical race theory;” 
• end all restrictions on corporate monopolies; cut funding for science; get rid of governmental social safety nets (for example, social security, Medicaid, and food programs) so people will become dependent on churches for their survival; 
• promote a Christian Nation identity in which conservative Christians have a right and a duty to enforce their values, sometimes by force; 
• and of course make it hard or impossible for most people to vote.

Their core mission is to take over America and end democracy. Some of them are well on their way.

4. The Trump Crime Family: Who Are They?

Over the years, many people have compared Donald Trump’s family to a “crime family” and Trump himself to a Mafia godfather, demanding unquestioned loyalty from underbosses, enforcers, and associates.

Trump is always looking for ways to keep his soldiers and associates (in the three groups described above) loyal by giving them some of what they want. Meanwhile his sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, are roaming across the planet making lucrative deals with people who seek privileged access to the President of the United States. Cryptocurrency has made such access simple and secret.

The Trump Crime Family: What Do They Want?

So long as Donald Trump can use his office to acquire gobs of money, push people around, receive endless praise and adoration from his subordinates, and inflict cruel revenge on those who stand in his way, he seems happy. His sons seem satisfied to score a few billion dollars here and there, based on their family ties to the president. At bottom, the family wants to retain power so they and their soldiers and associates can make boatloads more money. This requires modifying election systems so Republicans can win despite the odds against them.

Conclusion

So that, in a nutshell, is the Trump coalition. They all share one goal: to end one-person one-vote democracy. To do that, they first want to disempower the federal judiciary and eliminate the expectation of “due process.” Then, by making it difficult or impossible for large numbers of Americans to vote, they intend to remain in power forever.

It is up to the rest of us to make sure they don’t.

Peter Montague, Ph.D., is a widely published journalist and historian, a fellow with the Science & Environmental Health Network (Ames, IA), and a member of the National Writers Union (UAW Local 1981, AFL-CIO).