In 2016, Donald Trump liked to talk tough about corporate America. On the campaign trail, he said that Amazon was "getting away with murder" by influencing federal tax policy and promised that, if elected, he was "not going to let Wall Street get away with murder." This version of Trump sold himself as a populist outsider willing to take on not just the country's political establishment but also its business elite.
Today, Trump is back at the helm of the Republican Party, but the anti-corporate rhetoric has disappeared. This time around, the former president isn't even pretending to stand up to corporate power: He's defending big business, cozying up to billionaires, and wooing CEOs. Instead of paying an electoral price for this reversal, the polls suggest that he's winning over more working-class voters than ever before.
Central to Trump's 2016 pitch was that politicians on both sides of the aisle had been captured by wealthy donors and corporate lobbyists. Throughout the campaign, he highlighted that big business, elite media, and major donors were supporting his opponent to keep the rigged system in place. Trump presented himself as a different kind of candidate, promising to challenge this establishment capture.
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