While its certainly true that part of why so much of the US mainstream establishment, particularly in the private sector, is willing to collaborate openly with the fascist Trump regime is because they prefer fascism to sharing, it's also true that there are clear material benefits to legitimizing and supporting the Trumpenreich regime. In what reasonable people would describe as "open corruption," Federal Election Commission data shows that the administration has dropped or frozen federal enforcement cases against "at least 17 corporations that donated to the president's inaugural fund."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-corporations-inauguration

'See How This Works?': Trump Drops Cases Against Corporations That Funded His Inauguration

"Public Citizen found that corporations facing federal investigations or enforcement lawsuits donated a combined $50 million to President Donald Trump's inaugural committee. Trump raised a record sum of $239 million for his second inauguration, the new FEC filings show.

"Corporations facing federal lawsuits and investigations aren't giving millions to Trump's inauguration out of the kindness of their hearts," said Public Citizen researcher Rick Claypool. "They are trying to buy good will. And when you're a corporation under investigation or facing prosecution, that means the government dropping enforcement actions against you. In some cases, it may even mean receiving pardons in cases in which guilty pleas have already been entered, or retractions of settlements already entered into."

Bank of America, Capital One, Coinbase, DuPont, and JPMorgan are among the corporations that donated to Trump's inauguration and subsequently had federal enforcement cases dismissed.

Public Citizen noted that Google, which donated $1 million to Trump's inaugural committee, could benefit from the Trump Justice Department's decision during an ongoing antitrust case to scrap part of a "proposed breakup plan requiring Google to sell off AI businesses."

As the article notes, dropped federal enforcement cases against corporations that paid millions to kiss the ring at the Klepto Kaiser's inauguration isn't the only way large corporate actors like Apple, Google, and Coinbase have directly benefited from fascist collaboration. Apple in particular must be delighted with Trump's decision to exempt most of its imports from his absurd tariffs; which seems like a ridiculously good return on its investment of a million dollars for Der Leader's inauguration. Finally, while I personally don't care that much about the regime's decision to monetize the Easter Egg Roll by accepting corporate sponsors, it does speak to the crass levels of greed and corruption the administration and its lawless president are willing to engage in.

On some level I understand that right now it's hard to care that much about bog standard open corruption between the Trump regime and corporate actors happy to normalize and facilitate fascism for five points a share. The Pork Reich is snatching protestors off the street, fighting a war that doesn't exist against a gang that isn't invading us while trafficking migrants to a torture prison in El Salvador, and Elon Musk is firing thousands of federal workers in a scheme to pay for billionaire tax cuts that will absolutely get people killed. There's a lot going on, and "rich capitalists are doing something terrible for their own financial benefit" almost doesn't rate as "news" in an environment like the one we're living in.

The fact is however, it's precisely because of all the other evil fascist shit is going on that private sector collaboration with the Trump regime is such an important story. As I've explained elsewhere: fascism costs American society a horrifying toll both financially and in terms of human suffering, but the installation and operation of a fascist regime can be quite profitable for some. These companies, many of whom also contribute to Republican election funds and political action committees, absolutely know what Trump is and what he means to do because Downmarket Mussolini and his minions say the quiet parts out loud on the regular. They just don't give a fuck, and are happy to help a fascist government normalize its authoritarian activities and odious ideology by touting the support they receive from respected American corporations; as long as doing so pays off on their bottom line.

There are many reasons for the rise of a successful fascist movement in an America that has always embraced what today we recognize as fascist ideology; trying to pin it down to one specific factor is a fool's errand. But if and when the history of this era is written, I'm willing to bet that rampant greed and a ruling class that lusts for power over the rest of us will rank pretty highly on the list of contributing factors to this political moment.

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