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Excerpt: "I think there has always been a huge gap between what theories of capitalism say it is and how capitalism operates out in the world."

Naomi Klein photographed in Toronto for the Observer New Review. (photo: Christopher Wahl/the Observer)
Naomi Klein photographed in Toronto for the Observer New Review. (photo: Christopher Wahl/the Observer)


Naomi Klein: The Trump Phenomenon Is Part of the Dangerous Idea That Billionaires Can Solve Our Problems

By Ana Marie Cox, The New York Times

18 June 17

 

our book “No Is Not Enough” frames Donald Trump’s impunity as a type of branding. How does that help explain him?

He’s a culmination of many dangerous trends in the culture, especially the triumph of the idea that a successful corporation is first and foremost selling an idea of itself and a sense of belonging and identity to its customers. In the late ’80s, you saw brands start to sell the idea, the sense of belonging, first. That primacy of the brand does a lot to explain Trump, and how he has developed this intimate relationship with his base, why they expect so little of him and why he gets away with what he gets away with, because the rules of branding are really simple: Be true to your brand. The problem with Donald Trump is that he went and designed a brand that is entirely amoral.

Is he actually true to his brand?

His brand is wealth and power, which is why he’s driven so mad by things like “President Bannon” and people disputing his wealth. Because if that’s the case — if he’s not as rich and powerful as he claims he is — that really does damage his brand. It is a tremendous weakness of Trump’s that he believes his own P.R. And it’s a central part of his brand that he is the guy who gets the deal, and it has been ever since his real first brand extension, “The Art of the Deal” — a book not written by him.

One criticism I had of your dissection of his brand was that you talk about him as if he’s a triumph of capitalism, even though he’s not — he inherited his wealth.

I would argue that that’s the kind of capitalism we have now. I think there has always been a huge gap between what theories of capitalism say it is and how capitalism operates out in the world.

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