'Authoritarianism is bad for business': Morning Joe panel warns wealthy Trump donors

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough and his guests issued a chilling warning to wealthy Americans who support Donald Trump's return to the White House.

Billionaire megadonors, who had abandoned the former president after the Jan. 6 insurrection, have returned to the fold now that he has seemingly locked down the Republican Party nomination, but panelists on "Morning Joe" said they're wrong to think they're immune from the threats Trump poses to democracy and the constitutional order.

"The problem they have, I think, is that they're duped on, they think the crazy is going to stay in the crazy side of things and not going to affect the economy," said Brian Klaas, an associate professor in global politics at University College London. "Authoritarianism is bad for business, right?"

Scarborough agreed, saying that political chaos and authoritarian rule would choke the economy.

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"This is the thing, and I don't think they understand it," Scarborough said. "Trump is not just a threat to democracy, he is a threat to American capitalism because he is a threat to the rule of law, that any company comes to the United States would tell you, they come here because they know the ground rules."

Trump wants to tilt the playing field to benefit himself and his loyalists, which writer Molly Jong-Fast said would warp the economy.

"Trump doesn't believe in capitalism," she said, "he believes in crony capitalism, which is not the same thing. His friends he elevates. Let's just say, Trump was never a good businessman. He's not elevating the best people."

"History is littered with rich people who thought authoritarians would be okay to them, right?" Jong-Fast added. "We've seen this again and again throughout history. I think when you talk about someone like [billionaire investor] Nelson Peltz, who has come out for, he did a whole media tour recently when he said he doesn't want to vote for [president Joe] Biden because he feels Biden isn't as sharp as Donald Trump, which is a wild statement. Look, a lot of these people think the crony capitalism will work for them. They'll get the tax cuts, and they can keep going. I think history has proven that this is not how any of this works."

The former president has already warned he would blacklist wealthy donors who contributed to his GOP challengers, and Scarborough said he would carry that same dynamic into a second term.

"Trump has said, basically, 'I'm going to pick winners and losers,'" Scarborough said. "'If you are a company that's insufficiently loyal to me, I'm going to attack you' ... This guy is a crony capitalist."

New York Times columnist Mara Gay wondered whether those wealthy donors cared what sort of world they'd leave for their grandchildren if Trump strangles democracy and the rule of law, but she said they should worry about themselves, as well.

"They're in denial, that's all I can say," Gay said, "if – what's the phrase? – they think the goose steps are going to stop at their door."

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