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For me, it is increasingly perplexing to witness traditional class-based critiques being clumsily deployed to analyse our contemporary social crisis in the age of Trumpism 2.0. That is not to say that the well-trodden frameworks of capitalist critique, particularly those rooted in Marxist analysis, aren’t relevant in understanding economic exploitation, of course they are. But with the rise of the fascist movement all the way to the Oval Office and the executive orders that are now determining national and international policy, these Marxist critiques now risk missing the mark in diagnosing the ideological underpinnings of our present moment.

Are we witnessing the logical end of capitalist expansionism? Not quite, but perhaps we are contending with a mutation in its governing ideology; the superstructure has transmogrified. What we are seeing is the emergence of a form of Christofascism as an ideological force that subsumes the class struggle into a broader project of white supremacy and its associated identity annihilation of any ‘deviant’ identity (trans, feminist, communist, black radical, essentially any agitating force). Hence this is not simply a matter of the ruling class maintaining economic dominance; rather, it is about the fusion of capital accumulation with an ‘end times’ vision of social order. Clearly the main manifestation of this is Trump and Project 2025, but we see it with Nnetanyahu’s brand of Zionism, Modi’s Hindutva ideology and here in the UK, the far right’s obsession with Crusade imaginaries. All of these movements are concerned with an apocalypse that they need to be ready for: be that the rapture, the technofascists fascination with the singularity, or ominous utterings of a ‘final solution’. Ultimately, fascists see the future as closed, ending and final; and are preparing as such.

From Expansionism to Eschatology

Traditional Marxist analysis tells us that capitalism operates through an expansionist logic: the endless accumulation of capital necessitates new markets, new forms of commodification, and new ways to extract surplus value from the labour of the working class (or their spaces). This model has served us well in understanding neoliberal globalization, financialization, creative destruction, gentrification, the gig economy and a whole host of hegemonic practices of accumulation by dispossession. However, I find that when I apply the same critical lens to the current conjuncture, it simply struggles to account for a fundamental augmentation – or mutation – in how power now operates at the highest levels of capital and state apparatuses. Musk, Bezos and Zuckerberg are not acting like rational capitalist overlords; they are feudal technolords operating under the logic of a monarchy; genuflecting to their King Trump.

Under these interlocking forms of christofascism, the ruling ideology is no longer strictly about expanding markets, but about imposing a specific eschatological vision; one that seeks to eliminate ‘minor’ identities, dismantle pluralism, and enforce a rigid, monocultural (i.e. White) theocratic order that is equipped to ‘survive’ the coming apocalypse; indeed many Christian Zionists in the US see the establishment of the modern State of Israel as fulfilment of prophecies they believe to be necessary to the Second Coming of Jesus.

This shift represents a significant departure from classical capitalist logic, wherein diversity and fluidity are tolerated so long as they serve market interests. Instead, we see a turn toward cultural purification, where economic mechanisms important for resource capture, but ultimately are subjugated to a higher ideological goal.

Class as a Subsumed Category

This is where traditional class analysis as a structural critique falters. While class remains a fundamental axis of power relations and can be used important to narrate dispossession and marginalisation in certain parts of the world, it is no longer the primary organizing principle at the upper echelons of political and economic control. The conventional leftist understanding of capitalism – wherein the capitalist class seeks to maximize profit through the extraction and appropriation of labour value – is incomplete if it fails to recognize how this economic imperative is increasingly being guided by a theological-political vision rather than by capitalist rationality alone.

This is not to say that class has ceased to matter. Far from it. The precarisation of labour, the obsence concentration of wealth, and the mechanisms of surplus value extraction remain as brutal as ever. Indeed, the extreme wealth inequality we see in the world will ultimately be the catalyst for revolt: the very real and material dispossession of the populus by Trump, Musk and others around the world will make them wildly unpopular. But this ‘risk’ of uprising is now instrumentalized within a broader ideological framework that prioritizes authoritarian social control over economic efficiency (indeed some commentators have suggested the violence will be welcome by MAGA et al as part of the ‘divine crusade’). We see this in policies that may appear economically irrational but make perfect sense when viewed through the lens of christofascist eschatology; whether it be the criminalization of abortion, attacks on LGBTQ+ communities, or the erosion of secular governance.

If leftist critiques are to remain relevant, I feel they should evolve beyond a rigid class reductionism. Develop an analytical framework that understands capital as not merely an economic force but as one that is increasingly intertwined with reactionary ideology will aid us in the fight. There are, I see four related ways to do this.

Resist

The first is to recognize the role of religious eschatology in shaping capitalist governance. In essence this means understanding how religious nationalist movements influence policy decisions, even when those decisions seem to contradict capitalist interests in market expansion and labour exploitation (for example, focusing on the role of the Heritage Foundation and the Council for National Policy in shaping Trump’s second administration). Second is to analyse state power as an ideological, not just economic, instrument and that state repression (e.g., book bans, anti-trans legislation, reproductive restrictions) serves both economic and theological ends. Third is to emphasize intersectional materialism and conjure a synthesis of class analysis with critical race theory, feminist theory, queer theory and crip theory to fully grasp how oppression functions under christofascism. Finally, we need to build coalitions that go beyond traditional labour organizing; resistance must incorporate secular advocacy, reproductive justice, and anti-fascist organizing alongside traditional workers’ movements.

Class struggle is and always will be vital to understanding power and oppression. But in an era where the ruling class is guided not by simple profit motives but by a desire to impose a divinely ordained social order, our theoretical tools must adapt. The task ahead is to forge a new collective synthesis; one that maintains the rigour of class analysis while fully integrating the cultural, ideological, and eschatological dimensions of the crisis we face.