“How can the US population even consider making Donald Trump its President, and that too for a second time?
It’s a question on the lips and minds of millions around the globe. For them, Trump is a corrupt, authoritarian, misogynist, racist, fascist serial molester – all instant disqualifications for any candidate running for public office anywhere on Planet Earth. Choosing someone as unscrupulous as him would make a mockery of the entire exercise of elections in a democracy.
I fully endorse the sentiments behind this point of view. However, the billion-dollar question is, what exactly makes not just Donald Trump but so many similar politicians around the globe resonate with the masses and get swept to power through the popular vote? Has the world gone mad or completely evil? Don’t those who vote for these characters know what is good for themselves or their country?
There are many explanations being given for this crazy phenomenon of complete charlatans passing off as heroes and saviours everywhere. Reasons attributed include changing demographics, rising nativist emotions, xenophobia, cultural anxieties, a highly pliable media, manipulation by national and global elites, and so on.
All these factors play a role, of course, but they are all – in my view – secondary to the real villain of the story: the processes of ‘pump and dump’ that dominate the ethos of business and finance in our times. It’s a strategy that constantly seeks to falsely present something worthless as being priceless and scoot with the loot after enough people invest their life savings into the product.
It is not entirely new, of course, as the history of bluffs and cheats is as old as humanity itself. However, never before in history has fraud become so ubiquitous, ruthless, and committed on as grand a scale as today.
A very simple example of what I am referring to comes from what recently happened to the share prices of Truth Social, a loss-making, Donald Trump-owned media company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. On October 28th and 29th, a week before the US presidential elections, Truth Social’s stock rose by 30%, gaining billions of dollars in value. The enterprise’s valuation touched USD 10 billion, topping the Elon Musk-owned X – a much older and more profitable company operating in the same sector.
Just a day later, on October 30th, Truth Social’s price collapsed by 22% – wiping out most of the gains – but not before whoever was behind this manipulation had cashed in significantly. It is a classic ‘pump and dump’ story, quite common in stock markets around the world – the share prices of Adani companies in India being a domestic example of such deliberate distortion.
This pump and dump strategy is even more widespread in the cryptocurrency universe – valued at over 2.4 trillion dollars now – where prices of newly launched coins with zero utility can jump by 5000% or more before dropping back to nothing in the blink of an eye. Hype, stoking false hope, followed by pulling the rug from beneath the feet of clueless investors is the name of the game in the crypto world.
What works in the realm of financial speculation seems to be the model for politicians across the globe, who have perfected similar techniques, creating what amounts to emotional and psychological pump-and-dump schemes with entire populations.
The tactical playbook used by both politicians and financial manipulators is remarkably similar. They manufacture urgency by framing every decision as a critical turning point – “the last chance to make America/India/Turkey great again” in politics, or “don’t miss out on the next Bitcoin” in crypto. They build false credibility through networks of supportive media outlets, think tanks, and influencers. They create strong tribal identities, whether it’s “real Americans/Indians/Turks” in politics or “diamond hands” in crypto communities.
The most damaging parallel lies in how these schemes manage their inevitable disappointments. Politicians who fail to deliver on impossible promises typically shift blame to opposition parties, external circumstances, or simply distract with new controversies. Similarly, when crypto projects or meme stocks collapse, promoters blame market manipulation, weak-handed investors, or regulatory interference. In both cases, the original promises are quietly abandoned while attention is directed elsewhere.
If the problem were only with politicians, then one solution could have been to take all of them and deposit them in a waste-recycling plant somewhere. However, the tragedy today is that there are simply too many people in all walks of life – from medicine to media – who show the same lack of scruples politicians are accused of.
So, the key thing to understand is that while many can clearly see political operators for what they are, they are not necessarily disapproving of their ways. In other words, the strategy of ‘pump and dump’ has permeated so deeply into much of the global population itself that charlatans like Trump or Modi have become the new models of ‘success’ in our era. People complain only when they don’t benefit from the actions or policies of such politicians – as long as some of the loot is distributed among camp followers, everything is fine.
For too many people around the world today, all methods are morally equal as long as they produce ‘tangible’ results – like winning elections or divert money into their personal bank accounts. After all, the metrics of success in all spheres of life – from health to education – have been reduced to mere numbers like sugar readings to term scores and the size of salary packages.
And those chasing numbers have given up completely on questions about quality of any kind. Questions like: Is whatever I am doing really ethical or of any social or public benefit? Will my actions today result in something good for the entire planet or for future generations? Or even – will my deeds allow me to peacefully sleep every night with a clean conscience?
These are indeed the kind of people about whom Oscar Wilde quipped long ago as those who ‘know the price of everything and the value of nothing’. And there are too many of them around to fit into a few waste-recycling plants anywhere. So what’s the way out?
As mentioned before, this ethos of indifference to ethical or quality considerations of any kind comes from the world of business and finance. So if anyone is seriously interested in changing the way politicians operate today, they will have to first question the practices dominant in almost every business operation around the world – that of constantly putting profits before every other consideration. An approach that has led to a steep decline in integrity of institutions and subversion of all rules, procedures, and laws across society.
Historically, the most common way in which such widespread degradation of standards has been resolved is through catastrophe – the collapse of civilizations, mass culling of populations through disease or conflict, and suffering on an unimaginable scale. In a sense, that is exactly what the world is witnessing today – whether it is the horrific ongoing genocide in Gaza or the death and chaos the world saw during the Covid-19 pandemic just a few years ago.
There is a more positive route to change too, and one that has been taken many times before in history. This involves concerted mobilization of those who still have a spark of life left in them, collectively planning for a better future and acting effectively to bring about change. Examples range from the struggles against slavery, democratic and socialist revolutions, anti-colonial movements for independence, or the battle against race and gender discrimination.
What these examples show is that however bleak the situation looks, meaningful change is very much possible. The choice is clearly in the hands of the wider population – whether at the country level or globally – either become the agents of change or get the politicians your indifference or complicity deserves.
And please don’t complain when apocalypse strikes – you were the one who invited it home.
Satya Sagar is a journalist and public health worker who can be reached at [email protected]
