A critique of Atilio Borón

A perfect illustration of the Latin American misreading of the Trump phenomenon

President Trump and singer Kid Rock pose in the Oval Office in front of a map labeled "Gulf of America" (Photo: The White House/Peoples Dispatch). One wonders—with all due respect to Kid Rock—if Peoples Dispatch selected this photo to reinforce Borón’s view that Trump and his team should not be taken seriously.

Atilio Borón is a prominent intellectual of the Latin American Left. The Argentine Marxist and sociologist received a Ph.D. in Political Science at Harvard University. He has held various faculty positions in Argentina. He was Secretary General of the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO) from 1997 to 2006. He was awarded UNESCO’s International José Martí Prize in 2009 and the Premio Libertador al Pensamiento Crítico in 2013. He is well-known and highly regarded in Cuba.

With due respect for an outstanding intellectual committed to just causes, I submit that Borón’s article, “Trump and his impossible return to the past” (published by Peoples Dispatch on April 1, 2025…