Trump’s Plan Is to Make His Friends Even Richer

Quinn Slobodian is a Canadian historian whose new book ‘Hayek’s Bastards: The Neoliberal Roots of the Populist Right’ is a deep dive into the set of far-right ideologues currently dominating US politics.

Slobodian tracks how neoliberal thought has changed since Friedrich Hayek’s vision of unfettered capitalism went mainstream 50 years ago.

In this conversation with Ash Sarkar, Slobodian talks about the reasons behind the new far-right’s obsessions with collapse, race, gold, and IQ.

Who are the current crop of neoliberals influencing politics? What is their vision of the future and how do they plan to get there? Why does Elon Musk have so many male children? And if Fukuyama’s ‘end of history’ has now ended, will this new era offer us anything other than a frisson of excitement, before a time of deeper inequality ensues?

‘Hayek’s Bastards: The Neoliberal Roots of the Populist Right’ by Quinn Slobodian (2025) is available from Penguin Books.