OpEd: Is MAGA going Marxist and Maoist? Trump's assault on free-market capitalism
fortune.com

... As many CEOs understandably grew horrified last month at the prospect that New York City, the capital of capitalism, is on the brink of going socialist with the mayoral momentum of the inexperienced candidate Zohran Mamdani, they were ignoring the greater assault on free market capitalism that has already overtaken the nation in the Republican Party. While we agree that Mamdani's solutions to affordable housing and grocery prices threaten to undermine free markets by bowing to the appeal of populist anger, President Donald Trump has already begun doing so, but to suit his own grandiose political agenda instead.

Unlike any leader of any free-market economy around the world, President Trump has seized control of private enterprise's strategic decision-making and investment policies while invading corporate board rooms so that he may dictate leadership staffing, punish corporate critics, and demand public compliance with his political agenda. This is far more dangerous to capitalism than a city-run grocery store.

Many free-market economists and business leaders who have long worshipped the free-market ideals of Adam Smith, Friedrich Hayek, Ayn Rand, and Milton Friedman should be aware that their idols would be rolling in their graves right now, as rather than pursue standard laissez-faire conservative economic policies, MAGA has gone Marxist and even, increasingly, Maoist.

As Greg Ip warned this week in The Wall Street Journal, "The US marches toward state capitalism with American characteristics ... President Trump is imitating [the] Chinese Communist Party by extending political control ever deeper into the economy." ...

OpEd authored by:

...Jeffrey Sonnenfeld is Lester Crown Professor of Leadership Practice at the Yale School of Management and founder of the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute.

John Pepper was CEO and chairman of Proctor & Gamble, was chairman of the board of The Walt Disney Company and served on the boards of Motorola, Xerox, and Boston Scientific.

Anne Mulcahy was CEO and chairwoman of Xerox and served on the boards of Johnson & Johnson, Citigroup, and Target.

Bill George was CEO and chairman of Medtronic and served on the boards of Exxon, Goldman Sacks, Target, and Novartis.

Laura Tyson is the former chairman of the White House Counsel of Economic Advisers. The distinguished professor at the University of California, Berkeley, she was formerly dean of the Haas School of Business, and she now chairs the Board of Trustees at UC Berkeley's Blum Center for Developing Economies. ...