I am noticing something strange about Donald Trump: He may still be selling watches and shoes to his gullible followers for a few dollars here and there. But I believe his attention is now on something far grander, beyond petty cash and Trump Towers: He now wants to build pyramids for his eternal fame.

Most astoundingly, the transformation of this modern-day god-king in America is also making a profound, and often unrecognized, change in America’s relationship with its hitherto “real” ruling class — the capitalist system.

Historically, so-called “liberal democracy” has been the facade of capitalism ruling America with propaganda and consumerism, with which the rich always control the American masses. Consider robber baron Jay Gould’s brazen testament on capitalist power: Asked why he did not fear workers’ revolt, he said, “I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half,” which gives one the shivers even today for its naked truth.

Further along, Calvin Coolidge acknowledged capitalism’s supremacy in America by simply saying: “The business of America is business,” echoed by more recent politicians, namely, Nancy Pelosi and Kamala Harris, both quintessential Democrats and millionaires, who declared, “We are all capitalists!” Even the famed liberal mantra of “rule of law” is, in reality, the “(capitalist) rule of law.”

Although capitalism has thrived under both Democrats and Republicans, “Trump Republicans” are now in a curious position: Capitalism, the “old power,” and Trumpism, the “new power,” are facing each other either as uneasy allies or fierce competitors for control of America — one to continue, the other to begin. Given the fact that Trumpism has emerged as the only power in American history strong enough to stand up to capitalism, America’s future will depend on what Donald Trump does with capitalism and its money influence.

As a real estate developer with an unsavory reputation for avarice, Trump obviously likes money and still goes after it whenever possible. In fact, his grifting has been done so openly that the news media no longer reports on it, and the last Democratic government was just too overwhelmed to even bother to mention or investigate it.

But, for once in his life, particularly in his second term, Donald Trump the petty grifter has found his political legacy bigger than money. Like a pharaoh discovering his eternal life, he is mesmerized by his own power. He is now a political ruler — no longer an economic animal — who sees unlimited possibilities with his bloodless revolution.

A previously money-addicted real estate tycoon, he is kicking the money-habit for something more monumental. He still likes money, but he likes political power more and money is an afterthought. As the imperial ruler of America, he is losing interest in piddly cash or another tower named after him: The once billionaire now wants his face carved on Mount Rushmore — all alone.

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The nearest model that might shed a light on Trump is Putin, who is the richest man in Russia. But interestingly, reports are that Putin’s riches are “shared” with the Russian nation: Russia and Putin co-own everything, in which Russia is Putin and Putin is Russia. Likewise, Trump sees himself as America, and no one dares oppose him and live.

Trump is accomplishing something no other leader has since FDR: He made politics supreme in a society traditionally controlled by economics and he elevated electoral votes to the level of capitalist dollars. For the first time in American history, money’s absolute power is not so absolute. Indeed, learning from Putin’s methodology, Trump merged his political power with economic control. Now, Trump is America.

Like the pot calling the kettle blacker, liberals still claim Trump is the billionaires’ lackey who is ready to serve them with tax cuts and other favors to please Elon Musk and his ilk. But the fact is that Trump is already larger than Wall Street. It is the billionaires who are kneeling before him for his favor. Even with his vast wealth, Musk is simply a puppet dancing on the strings of Master Trump, who with the awesome complement of government power, can make Musk or any billionaire beg for his mercy any time he wants.

Indeed, Trump can easily bully America’s capitalists into submission in the same way he has bullied America’s liberals into irrelevance. American corporate capitalists have never confronted such a powerful political enforcer who is above the law and, more significantly, beyond the money imperative. He can make and unmake oligarchs and their money at will. After liberal democrats, now it’s capitalists’ turn to shake in their boots as the enfant terrible is rapidly turning into the political terrible.

Until Trump, no political leader has been free of Wall Street power or capable of dismantling America’s capitalism as he pleases. No past American president has had Trump’s unchallenged power and his aggressively bold ambition to remake America unto his personal vision. He can simply make capitalism just another subordinate institution to serve his political ends. If he can do it, he will do it.

Facing a choice between money supremacy and white supremacy, America’s electoral majority chose the latter and, along with it, welcomed Trump as their first legitimate god-king. The man universally reviled by liberals is now America’s only possible savior to unshackle America from capitalism’s century-long chains. Just now, Trump is destroying everything he inherited from liberal democracy. Very likely, his destruction includes capitalism’s monopoly on America..

Still, caught between capitalism and Trumpism, our Jeffersonian ideals are in dire straits. During World War II, some Irish hotheads were willing to sell their souls to Nazi wolves for their freedom from British foxes.

In America, we chose and swallowed our poison and are waiting for its effect on our and our children’s pursuit of happiness.

Jon Huer, columnist for the Recorder and retired professor, lives in Greenfield and writes for posterity.