With Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the oligarchs are inside the White House
America is at a critical crossroads, and the time for both preparation and action is here.
The Democratic Party and American patriots must engage in a serious and urgent conversation about the alarming pending state of our nation, and the capture and corruption of the Republican Party by the morbidly rich.
Remember the historical fears of foreign influence in American politics? From the “malign French influence” XYZ Affair during John Adams’ presidency to Senator Joe McCarthy’s witch hunts against communists in the 1950s? Those worries are trivial compared to what we face today.
For the first time in our history, we’re on the brink of having a convicted felon, adjudicated rapist, and “friend” of a foreign foe in the White House.
But that’s not even the most terrifying aspect of our new reality. What should truly keep us awake at night is the unprecedented power wielded by a single billionaire who has direct access to the president and, alarmingly, to the Kremlin.
The richest man in the world, who controls our largest social media platform and crucial satellite technology, is not only a close adviser to president-elect Donald Trump but is also, according to The Wall Street Journal, regularly communicating with Russian President Vladimir Putin. This is oligarchy at its most dangerous.
Let’s not forget Elon Musk’s previous calls for a deliberate economic crash; billionaires thrive on recessions because they use them as buying opportunities to quickly and radically expand their empires.
He has openly advocated stripping the US federal government of talent and funding. What was once dismissed as eccentricity is morphing into actual policy proposals under Trump’s leadership.
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And, of course, it’s not just Musk. Trump has nominated a rogue’s gallery of billionaires – along with accused sexual abusers, grifters, and friends-of-Putin – to the highest positions in the government of the United States, and claims to have big plans for our future. As Nina Burleigh asked over at The New Republic:
Whose side will the military take, Trump’s or the people’s? Will America come to resemble Argentina in the 1970s and 1980s, the “enemy within” rounded up and held without charges? Will women be stopped at state borders and hormone tested for pregnancies? Will Americans watch behind closed curtains as men in military garb, maybe without identification, hustle their neighbours away? Will we hear of but never see – the concentration camps, deep in the barren Western deserts, surrounded by razor wire?
These are serious questions, all are within the realm of things Trump and people around him have proposed. The stakes are higher than ever.
Idaho just confirmed they are going after women and girls who leave the state for abortions. The governor of Texas just unveiled land to build the first camps for “the enemy within”. The guy Trump wants to run the FBI has published an actual enemies list of Americans.
Recent revelations from The Wall Street Journal confirm that Musk has had back-channel interactions with Moscow, apparently engaging in regular conversations with Russian officials, including Putin himself. This is not just political evolution; it could become a direct threat to democracy worldwide.
Witness how this influence plays out in real-time: Musk’s alignment with Russian talking points apparently led him to block Ukrainian military operations over Crimea using his Starlink satellites. This isn’t merely business; it’s foreign policy dictated by a billionaire ostensibly taking suggestions from Moscow.
We are witnessing the collapse of democratic norms right before our eyes, starting with Musk – a federal contractor – spending a quarter-billion in unaccountable money to put Trump into the White House when federal law arguably forbids federal contractors like Musk from inserting themselves into federal elections to avoid conflicts-of-interest.
The Republican-captured Federal Election Commission (FEC), which is responsible for enforcing such election laws, has been rendered impotent for over a decade by the Republicans in its leadership.
A new power structure is emerging where unelected billionaires like Musk act as conduits between foreign autocrats and the White House, and billionaires like Musk, Bezos, and Soon-Shiong (owner of the LA Times) control what millions of people read and believe.
The lines between corporate power, billionaire interests, government authority, public “knowledge,” and foreign influence have not just blurred – they’re vanishing.
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And it doesn’t stop with Russia. The Kremlin, we just learned, has also apparently pressured Musk to restrict satellite coverage over Taiwan as a favour to Chinese leader Xi Jinping. A private citizen with no government oversight making decisions that impact international security based on conversations with foreign leaders.
We have never seen anything like this before. Although both Russia and Hungary have: It’s how oligarchs helped strongmen end democracy in both nations.
Yes, foreign governments have tried to sway American policy in the past and wealthy individuals have wielded outsized political power, but never have we seen such a toxic combination: A former president returning to power (himself a convicted criminal and a billionaire). Another billionaire controlling key technology. Multiple billionaires (including Musk) controlling media consumed by as many as 40 per cent of Americans, and several of them sharing direct lines of communication with foreign adversaries.
This is not just politics as usual, this is an emergency. When has any small group of private citizens held such sway over both domestic and foreign policy? When have we seen a president so willing to allow a billionaire with clear foreign entanglements to dictate our nation’s direction?
The America we once knew – where elected officials were accountable to voters rather than billionaires – is slipping away.
This erosion of democracy is largely due to five corrupt Republicans on the Supreme Court ruling that political bribery equals “free speech,” allowing billionaires to flood our 2024 election with money.
Unless we act to restore democratic oversight and accountability, to stand up to this incoming regime, we may not recognise what remains of our democracy by the end of Trump’s next term.
The oligarchs are no longer just at the gates – they’re moving into the White House. So far, a dozen billionaires and two multimillionaires have infiltrated Trump’s cabinet picks. And almost across the board, they are talking about gutting the institutions of America, something that would delight Vladimir Putin.
Do we, the American people, still possess the power and will to challenge this oligarchic takeover? Can the Democratic Party unite around a working-class consensus that rejects billionaires running our country for their own gain and at the behest of foreign dictators?
Democrats in the House and Senate must gird themselves to do what Republicans did to U.S. President Barack Obama when he was elected: absolutely oppose everything he tries, no matter how slickly packaged it is, and resist to the last man and woman.
Not only will that energise Democratic voters and bring electoral victories over the next four years, it may well save what’s left of our republic.
This is a call to action. We must organise populist movements and reform the Democratic Party in a way that awakens voters from their slumber before it’s too late.
Reversing 43 years of the Reagan Revolution in tax and regulatory policy while re-embracing the New Deal won’t come overnight, but if we don’t show up and lay their foundations, they won’t come at all. Which will almost certainly mean the doom of American democracy.
The future of our republic hangs in the balance; both the Democratic Party and those of us who care about the future of our country must prepare for a long, hard slog and get about the work today. (I’ll be writing about this with more specifics shortly.)
That includes showing up at your local Democratic Party meetings, joining activist groups you feel aligned with, participating in social media, and relentlessly calling out the abuses and crimes of the morbidly rich and their corporations.
It’ll be difficult, but if we can return our country to her core values of respect, compassion, and egalitarianism as laid out in our founding documents, it’ll be well worth it.
Thom Hartmann is the host of the US nationally syndicated The Thom Hartmann Program radio talk show and the author of more than 25 books.
