Last fall, Robert Reich published Saving Capitalism, in which he called for a sweeping realignment of political power to counter the excesses of contemporary capitalism. A realignment has followed, but not the kind Reich had in mind.

While most observers dont expect Donald Trump s stunning election to lead to greater shared prosperity, theres little question that rampant economic inequality was critical to his success. Its hard to imagine Trumps ascent without the dramatic hollowing out of the American middle class over the past several decades.

Capital & Main spoke by phone with the former labor secretary about how the Trump years will affect inequality and the working class voters who were so instrumental in the business moguls rise to political power.

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Capital & Main: What will happen to economic inequality under Donald Trump?

Robert Reich: It will worsen for a number of reasons. First, Trump and the Republican Congress will pass a huge tax cut for the very wealthy, larger than the Reagan or George W. Bush tax cuts. That would mean large deficits. Those deficits will require, at some point, cuts in public spending.

Second, Trump and [House Speaker] Paul Ryan are already talking about privatizing Medicare and rolling back or eliminating the Affordable Care Act. Trump says he wants to maintain the portion of the Affordable Care Act that requires insurers to provide insurance to people with preexisting conditions, but theres no requirement that insurers charge an affordable rate to people with preexisting conditions. My fear is that they wont. On paper, they will be complying with the letter of the law in terms of what Trump says he wants, but, in reality, people with preexisting conditions will pay enormous premiums, giant copayments and deductibles.

Third, I have every reason to believe that the person Donald Trump names to the Supreme Court will be a right-wing conservative who has no interest in reversing Citizens United in fact, if anything will probably eviscerate what remains of campaign finance limits and may do terrible damage to low-income and poor people through a variety of decisions.

What was the most decisive factor that explains why millions of Americans voted against their own economic self-interest again?

The resentment [against] the ruling class has been building for 30 years, and that resentment is based on two related things. First, the majority of Americans have been on a downward escalator for 30 years. Second, Republicans have for years stoked the fires of racism, and they did it long before the middle class began to shrink and the working class began losing good jobs, but the crisis of the American working class added to the potency of Republican race-baiting. Obviously, that applies not just to African Americans but to Muslims and Latinos. It was that poisonous combination of economic stress and appeals to racism, all wrapped up in a kind of right-wing populist garb, that won it for the Republicans. Hillary Clinton did not provide a convincing message of what she was going to do to turn the economy around for most people, and she seemed to be the embodiment of the ruling class.

Will the white working-class voters who were crucial to Trumps victory see any real economic benefits from his administration?

No. They may see some initial Keynesian benefit from a big infrastructure project if thats, in fact, what Trump manages to do, combined with an increase in military spending and a tax cut. That all will stimulate the economy much the same way Ronald Reagans military Keynesianism stimulated the economy in the 1980s, but it will be short term. It wont change, fundamentally, anything and the white working class, along with the poor and the lower middle class white, black and Latino will continue to be on the downward escalator they have been on, but it will be worse.