A member of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), Compatriots is the underground revolutionary organization of overseas Filipinos across the world.

With the comeback of Trump as the 47th president of the imperialist United States of America, Liberation sought the members of Compatriots-US who are in the belly of the beast to share their views and insights on what Trump’s victory means to the Filipinos in the US in particular, and to the national democratic revolution in general, with US imperialism being the no. 1 enemy of the Filipino people. This interview was conducted shortly before Trump’s inauguration when he, expectedly, announced his neofascist and imperialist policies.

Liberation (L): Looking back at the presidential campaign, what were the issues raised by the people? Which issues united (and divided) the people?

Compatriots (C): The worsening economic and political crisis within the belly of the US imperialist beast brought many mass issues to the forefront during the most recent presidential election. On top of mind for a majority of people were economic issues: continued inflation that has led to increased costs for food, gas, and other basic needs; skyrocketing housing costs; low wages; job flexibilization; and more.

The people also raised concerns on attacks on their democratic rights, especially workers’ rights, women’s rights, reproductive rights, migrants’ rights, the right to education and healthcare, and the rights of oppressed minorities who increasingly experience overtly racist attacks.

Given the heightening crisis of imperialism, the national liberation movements of minorities within the US also organized to advance their own people’s struggles while continuing their solidarity with the masses in the country. Most prominent last year was, of course, the Palestinian people’s movement for the liberation of their homeland, which was carried by the Palestinian diaspora in the US, and supported by millions across the country.

But, while the masses of working people in the US were in agreement that the problems with the economy were a big issue because of the dominance of the reactionary two-party system, which are parties of the monopoly capitalists, most were swayed by the analysis and “solutions” propagated by either the Democratic or Republican party’s platform. These platforms of the ruling class led people astray from actually challenging the capitalist system as the root of the economic crisis. They even fostered anti-people views, especially among supporters of the Republican Party, spreading racism, sexism, anti-immigrant sentiments, and anti-communism, among other reactionary positions.

L: How do you account for Trump’s victory?

C: Trump’s victory was a resounding defeat of the Democrats. Harris lost in all crucial “swing” states, which have swung between leaning Democratic or Republican in previous elections. Across all states, people voted more Republican than Democrat compared to the 2020 elections. Trump also won both the popular vote and the decisive electoral college vote (the method by which the U.S. counts votes per state for presidential elections), unlike in 2016 when Trump won the electoral college vote but lost the popular vote to Hilary Clinton.

To rub salt in the wound of the Democrats, Trump won with even less votes compared to his numbers from 2020. On top of this, the Republicans also gained a majority of seats in the House of Representatives and the Senate. Combined with the already right-leaning Supreme Court, the Republicans effectively exert substantial control over the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the U.S. government.

There are many factors that led to this result. Polling surveys show that the primary issue among Trump voters was the economy, whereas it was the state of “democracy” in the U.S. for Harris voters. In the face of widely felt economic crisis, Harris and the Democratic Party failed to provide a more convincing “solution” to the crisis that the Republicans. At the same time, it showed the failures of the Democrats’ economic policies in the last four years.

Trump’s campaign, on the other hand, employed elements of fascism—including the stoking of chauvinism, xenophobia, racism, patriarchalism, and anti-communism—to mislead the working masses on who bears responsibility for the economic crisis. The Republican Party effectively exploited mass discontent with the crisis to win over sections of the working class by painting the picture of an “enemy within,” while disguising its big bourgeois class character.

L: Would you say that the US is even more divided after the elections?

C: The continued intensification of neoliberalism on the one hand, and the resurgence of neoconservative and neofascist elements on the other hand, prompted by the failures of the liberal Democratic Party have caused more divisions among the masses.

Given that, some are very happy with the Republican sweep of the presidency—the U.S. House of Representatives and the US Senate. Some are scared, dismayed, disillusioned. And, because of a weak understanding of who the enemy is, they are now turning against and blaming the exploited and oppressed masses who either voted for Trump, or chose not to vote for Harris. Some are preparing to intensify the continuing fight under the Trump administration, but that fight is in danger of being coopted by the Democratic Party, as many were during Trump’s first term.

L: How did the progressives and anti-imperialist forces figure into the campaign?

C: There were progressive movements and campaigns advanced during the election period. The solidarity movement for Palestine pushed many voters to identify as “independent” or to join grassroots organizations exposing even the role of the Democratic Party in the imperialist war. Other anti-imperialist grassroots formations such as the US chapters of both the International League of Peoples’ Struggle and International Migrants Alliance also united the people broadly under a People’s Platform and Grassroots Migrants Agenda. A broad section of Filipinos in the US also coalesced around a Filipino-American Agenda, spearheaded by alliances such as the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns, Malaya Movement USA, and Migrante USA. They worked together with community non-profit organizations, churches, professionals in health and media, and others.

As revolutionary members of Compatriots-USA, we also took up many of these economic and political issues as solidarity fights with the peoples of the US, while linking and raising them to our primary struggle for national and social liberation in the Philippines. We, as compatriots living in our No.1 imperialist enemy, especially maximized the election period to advance the campaign to end increasing US military and economic intervention in the Philippines.

L: Are you expecting major policy changes with Trump’s presidency?

C: Given Trump’s anti-people platform, we expect his policies to be anti-people as well. These range from mass deportation, union repression, tariffs that will pass huge cost burdens onto the people, intensification of war and counterinsurgency at home and abroad, lifting of environmental protections, cutting funding for social services like healthcare and housing, further militarization of the police and the border, neoliberal attacks on education, and so on.

Trump’s appointment of big capitalists, war hawks, and politicians with a thoroughly anti-people track record already speak volumes of what’s to come.

Some of these will be a continuation of Biden’s policies, many of which are actually just continuations of Trump’s first term. At the same time, we should expect a ramping up of particular attacks, such as against workers, migrants, women, LGBTQ people, non-Christians, and so on.

Since Trump’s main priorities are to “bring back” jobs to America and stir up local manufacturing and industrialization, this comes with heightened corporate deregulation especially in the mining and manufacturing industry. With this, we also expect it to come with deregulation in environmental protections so that these projects will be easier and faster to approve. Trump also believes that corporate deregulation will drive up more “competition” in the market, so there are plans to also deregulate essential social services such as the healthcare industry. In reality, we could expect that big corporations will instead influence the market towards driving costs higher.

L: Do you foresee additional repressive measures against the migrants, including Pinoys?

C: A cornerstone of Trump’s campaign was his promise to crackdown on undocumented migrants and further militarize the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump deported 1.5 million people under his first term, enforced a policy of putting migrants into literal cages, and forcibly separating families from each other. Trump’s Vice President, JD Vance, has threatened to deport one million migrants every year. On top of deportation, Trump’s attacks on workers’ rights and stoking of racist hate crimes will surely impact migrant communities.

These measures will have huge impacts on the Filipino community overall, and on undocumented Filipinos and their families in particular. There are approximately one million undocumented Filipinos across the U.S., most of whom are workers being heavily exploited across multiple jobs. Some became undocumented as victims of labor trafficking, a result of the collusion between the Philippine and U.S. state, and unscrupulous U.S. companies and Philippine recruitment agencies.

L: The PH ambassador to US said it’s better for the Pinoy TNTs to head back home, what are your thoughts on this?

C: The statements made by Philippine Ambassador to the U.S., Jose Romualdez (who is the cousin of Marcos), are incorrect, reckless, and completely dismissive of the plight of undocumented migrants. Romualdez cited an estimate of only 200,000 undocumented migrants, which even then he said was a “small number.” Mainstream media and lawyers have already contradicted his advice to “self-deport.”

Unfortunately, his words have already sown fear within the community, and we have heard reports of undocumented migrants already going home even prior to Trump’s inauguration. Romualdez does not understand that undocumented Filipinos were forced to migrate to the U.S. because of the lack of livelihood in the Philippines, and that they choose to stay despite their vulnerability just to send money back home, even if they are only paid crumbs.

Aside from Romualdez’s comment, the Philippine Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) issued a statement promising it would assist Filipinos with travel back to the Philippines, and “re-skilling” them for deployment in other countries. Even if we were to take the conservative estimate of around 370,000 undocumented Filipinos cited by some non-profit organizations, the DMW’s AKSYON Fund is short by around Php 17 billion to provide every undocumented migrant with the minimum Php 50,000 they would be due. Moreover, the strategy of “solving” the problem by just sending repatriated migrants to another country for work is emblematic of the government’s labor export program.

L: What would be Compatriot’s response on this?

C: Compatriots USA will continue to arouse, organize, and mobilize among Filipino migrants to address their immediate welfare and protection from Trump’s mass deportation plans. This will require broadening and revolutionizing among middle forces who can offer support to undocumented migrants. At the same time, through painstaking political education and engagement through struggle, we must link and raise the immediate struggle against deportation to the fight for a family living wage and jobs in the Philippines, and ultimately forge a united movement among Filipinos in the US against imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat capitalism as the root cause of forced migration and the poverty experienced by our families back home.

L: Are changes in the US relations with China and Russia anticipated?

C: There will be no significant change in a Trump administration’s relations with China. If anything, he will escalate tension even further. Trump has threatened tariffs of up to 60 percent on imports from China, which would most definitely set off trade wars between the two countries. Moreover, his proposal to appoint Marco Rubio—a rabid anti-China politician with little to no experience in foreign diplomacy—as Secretary of State will only make matters worse.

While Trump has been known for being close to Vladimir Putin, he himself pushed for more military aid and weapons to Ukraine and imposed economic sanctions on Russia.

L: How about in the Philippines?

C: Just as unequal economic and military agreements between the US and Philippines have persisted and expanded under Republican and Democratic administrations alike, Trump will surely continue both, especially given the very anti-China stance of the administration as cited earlier. We should expect he will continue to build upon the increase in open or covert EDCA bases done under Biden; the signing of new agreements like the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA); neoliberal expansion of foreign direct investments to critical minerals processing or “green” energy projects; and efforts that combine both military and economic objectives, such as the Luzon Economic Corridor.

We know from Trump’s first term, however, that he is also likely at times to break the convention of consensus building with congress or across different stakeholders, and instead do things unilaterally to push his own agenda. We must study how these unilateral moves will interplay with bilateral and multilateral agreements that other bureaucrats will most definitely continue to advocate for.

For example, we already know that US imperialism has been doubling down on bilateral agreements that serve as the core of its multilateral agreements. This is especially true of its web of bilateral (and, more and more, trilateral) military agreements in the Asia Pacific that we can view as laying the basis for an “Asian NATO.”

L: What are the implications of all of these to the Philippine revolution?

C: Trump’s election does not fundamentally change the relationship between U.S. imperialism and the Philippines as its neo-colony. Trump will once again inherit and advance imperialism’s agenda of economic plunder, militarism, and counterinsurgency in the Philippines. And if we are to believe that his administration will implement large chunks of Project 2025, it will be even more rabidly anti-communist. We should expect it to throw even more support behind the fascist Marcos regime’s counterinsurgency operations meant to crush the Filipino people’s democratic revolution, which remains the strongest opposition and barrier to U.S. imperialism’s dragging the entire country and people into its war against China.

The compatriots mass movement here in the U.S. must boldly struggle and intensify its work from within the belly of the beast. Compatriots USA must reach Filipinos in the millions, organize those who will be most threatened by Trump, and raise their consciousness to direct their collective fight to overturning the semi-colonial and semi-feudal system at the root of their suffering. This will be our greatest contribution to advancing our people’s war, which will rage even more fiercely in the Philippine countryside once Trump assumes office. ### (by the Liberation staff)