Trump's Agenda is a Corporate-led Assault on Human Rights

The Trump administration’s agenda—and the global far-right movement it fuels—must be recognized for what it is: an orchestrated effort to manufacture crises and chaos as a pretext for rolling back human rights, suppressing movements, and consolidating corporate power. This is not just about political maneuvering; it is about entrenching a system that allows corporations and the powerful to operate with impunity while dismantling the structures designed to hold them accountable.

For over a decade, ESCR-Net has exposed and denounced corporate political takeover—corporate capture of government institutions and decision-making in the endless pursuit of profit. With Trump’s return, corporate capture has become more blatant than ever–it’s no longer only about influencing government policies and legislation but increasingly about direct control. 

Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, spent almost $300 million to help elect the current U.S. President, while technology billionaires and other CEOs rushed to donate $1 million each for the privilege of standing behind the new President at his inauguration, in hopes of securing their influence. Musk has since been granted potentially unfettered access to private data and appointed to lead sweeping cuts to government agencies as head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). One of its first actions: supporting the indefinite suspension of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency designed to protect common people against financial fraud and corporate abuse—long opposed by the financial sector. Its indefinite suspension led to the abrupt layoff of 70 to 100 employees, with the remaining staff fearful of retaliation for speaking out.

The impacts extend far beyond U.S. borders. We are witnessing a corporate-led attack on global governance, driving Trump’s withdrawal from multilateral institutions. As ESCR-Net has long denounced, corporations are complicit in genocide, mass displacement, famine, and enviromental destruction across the globe; many of these corporations have worked to undermine global regulation and accountability. Corporate capture was on display when pharmaceutical corporations blocked efforts to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 life-saving vaccines, prioritizing profit over public health. Now, the Trump administration has withdrawn from the World Health Organization (WHO) and paused USAID funding, despite their critical role in global health initiatives. Corporate capture has also fueled inaction on the climate crisis, with over 1,770 lobbyists connected to the fossil fuel influencing global climate negotiations in 2024. In the early days of his second term, President Trump reiterated his intention to withdraw from the Paris Agreement and from the UN Human Rights Council, further dismantling international frameworks meant to hold corporations and states accountable. Similarly, Trump’s assault on the International Criminal Court (ICC) fits this broader pattern of undermining global systems of justice. The administration has imposed sanctions and travel bans on ICC staff, weakening one of the few remaining mechanisms capable of holding powerful individuals accountable for genocide and war crimes—those who would otherwise escape justice.

Trump’s recent statements on Gaza, as well as the Panama Canal and Greenland, not only threaten violations of international law, they exemplify a broader pattern of corporate-driven policies that prioritize imperial expansion and resource control over human rights, including the right to self-determination. His administration’s plan to “take over” Gaza and forcibly displace its population—over 2 million Palestinians still grappling with the devastating consequences of Israel’s 15-month-long genocidal campaign—aligns with decades of U.S. foreign policy decisions that serve the interests of military contractors and fossil fuel companies, and now property developers are being encouraged to contemplate massive profits from turning Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”

Trump and other far-right leaders are gaining traction by exploiting public frustration after decades of neoliberal policies that have eroded social protections. For 40 years, the public has been told that the government is the problem and the private sector is the solution. This narrative—reinforced by corporate-backed think tanks and media—has fueled anti-government sentiment while shielding corporate elites and particularly tech billionaires from scrutiny.

At the same time, President Trump’s policies weaponize racism, misogyny, xenophobia, and transphobia to divide communities. By scapegoating marginalized communities, far-right leaders divert attention from the root causes of systemic economic and social injustices, deepening global inequalities while accelerating environmental destruction. Corporate actors have eagerly followed suit, cutting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the U.S. Internationally, President Trump’s executive order to end U.S. funding to South Africa is framed as a response to human rights violations against white Afrikaners due to a new land reform law and to their genocide case against Israel before the International Court of Justice. Furthermore, Elon Musk, raised in apartheid South Africa, has echoed far-right rhetoric by portraying Afrikaner farmers as victims of racist violence, suggesting that a genocide against whites is imminent. These actions reveal the deep connection between white supremacy and corporate interests. 

Many of Trump’s executive orders may be designed to create distractions, but their impact is real. Millions of lives—whether migrants, transgender and gender-expansive people, Black South Africans, Palestinians, Indigenous land defenders, or impoverished and working-class people—are treated as disposable in the pursuit of profit and political gain.

In direct defiance of fear and prejudice, ESCR-Net members–social movements, Indigenous Peoples and small farmer organizations, independent trade unions, grassroots feminist groups, and human rights organizations–are building cross-regional solidarity and collective efforts to expose and dismantle corporate capture. We are promoting alternatives rooted in mutual care and sustainability and calling on governments to respect, protect, and fulfill human rights. ESCR-Net, with members across more than 80 countries, stands united with communities resisting corporate-backed authoritarianism and building futures that prioritize people and the planet over profit.

The ESCR-Net Board and the SOS Advisory Group collaborated on this statement.