US-EYE
THE West End revival of
Evita
closes this weekend, bringing immense relief to local workers around Oxford Circus, who have heard “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” belted from the Palladium’s balcony eight times a week all summer. But for a replacement dose of Peronism, we can simply look west. In the last few months, Donald Trump has embraced the governing style pioneered by Eva and Juan. That means protectionism, nationalism and state interference in business, all wrapped up in a cult of personality.
This sort of thing used to be anathema to American conservatives, who often described themselves as free-market fundamentalists. During the last election, Trump accused his opponent Kamala Harris of championing “Marxism”. His evidence was that she had spoken about a crackdown on price-gouging. Right-wing thinktanks recently had fits of the vapours about the left-wing Democrat Zohran Mamdani’s suggestion of “city-owned grocery stores” in New York.