#Wewillnotbetrumped
Well, Trump has gone full rogue and is waging his personal and ideological war on an unsuspecting and ill-prepared world using all the dirty tricks in his play book. It’s far worse than we thought, more extreme and underhand than most of us could have imagined. Affected parties who have tried to resist have been unable to withstand for very long (think the plucky guys at USAid who tried to stop the DOGE assault on their offices, only to be placed on immediate leave). The Trump-Musk wrecking ball is too large, too heavy and swinging with an incredible momentum, and the only realistic action is to run for cover.
Individual countries are trying to stand up to him but Trump knows he has scale and might on his side and can use American money, aid, investment and military support as very powerful intimidation tools. And in the spirit of “America First” together with “Everyone Else… who gives a s**t”, he can – and is – bludgeoning other countries into submission.
At the same time Corporate America has laid itself bare as completely spineless on the one hand or similarly ethically reprehensible on the other. Either way it is complicit in Trump’s game plan. For many American corporate CEOs, making more money and building or consolidating power are apparently the top two US resolutions for 2025.
But Trump’s powers are not all-conquering. For one, he does not have any notable leverage over the financial markets. The markets can hold him to account because they are an invisible hand with the kind of financial power that neither Trump nor his obscenely wealthy partner in crime Elon Musk can withstand.
The markets are (on the whole) objective and they will bend in whichever direction they believe the financial winnings are. So we can’t rely on the markets to work against Trump.
But wait, there are other types of markets, much closer to home, with the capacity to wield enormous power over Trump. And these markets can act subjectively.
They are consumer markets.
Ordinary people like you and me, our friends and relatives, work colleagues, our communities… we are all consumers and each one of us is a very tiny contributor to a bigger thing that we call consumer markets. Individually we have the ability to make choices about what we buy and what we don’t. We can choose to buy American goods and services or we can choose not to. And if we collectively lean away from American products and services, we can make American Corporations pay for Trump’s policies. And you can be sure of one thing: Trump will be backpedalling so fast once Corporate America’s revenues begin to falter and financial markets react by selling off US stocks.
To be clear, this must be a global consumer response. It is not enough for the consumers of a single country or a few random countries to carry out this tactic. Trump can retaliate against individual countries in a way that would be economically and politically damaging for them. But there is strength in numbers, and the best, fastest, and most effective way to put Trump back in his place is for the global consumer universe to band together in the ultimate act of defiance, the ultimate demonstration of the power of the people.
So here’s what I recommend:
From today, when you are buying a product or a service, or using a service which can be monetised (eg X, Facebook, Instagram), stop to consider for a moment whether the purveyor is an American Corporation. If it is, consider whether there are alternative ways to meet your needs. One option may be to buy an equivalent that is not associated with an American Corporation, another may be to delay a significant purchase, or even not to purchase at all. NB: small American companies are exempted as they are not the bad guys in this, and anyway don’t have the same power broker status as large American Corporations.
As far as I’m concerned, all large American Corporations should be included, unless they are actively criticizing and challenging Trump’s anti-democratic and bullying tactics. It’s up to individual corporations to tell their customers that they oppose Trump’s unethical practices and to provide evidence to support their claims. If they don’t or won’t, then consider the products or services of another company.
We will not be trumped!!!
life unplugged 