Corporate Capitulation to Authoritarian Power is Nothing New

From Nazi profiteers to 21st-century boardrooms, big business never met a strongman it couldn’t enable

American corporations are bending the knee to Trump’s authoritarian power grab at a speed that is almost breathtaking—unless, of course, one has bothered to glance at actual history. To some, the spectacle of CEOs shoving each other aside to see who can grovel faster before an authoritarian regime is as shocking as the sun rising in the east. Others, who have paid attention to how capitalism has always operated, are not surprised. Corporations, by design, have never been on the side of democracy. They have always chosen profit over people, power over principle—and no amount of rainbow-emblazoned Earth Day swag stamped with a corporate logo changes that.