When President-elect Trump held a press availability as he was speaking to Republican Governors last week he rattled off a number of big names who’d made the pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago to kiss the ring of the new Don. He actually sounded rather surprised by it, saying, “they all came. Jeff Bezos came, Bill Gates came, Mark Zuckerberg came, many of them came numerous times, the bankers have all come, everybody’s coming. I haven’t had anyone say anything bad about me. I’m not used to it.”
He believes they come because they are dazzled by the power and strength of his massive electoral victory (like nobody’s ever seen before!) but none of them are as dumb or as deluded as he is so that’s obviously not the case. I’m going to guess they’re dazzled by the richest man in the world’s proximity to him and they want a piece of that action. Elon Musk has opened the door to a new style of oligarchy, American style.
The history of Russia after the fall of communism is instructive here. Under the first president of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, in the 1990s, a group of snake oil salesmen and scam artists swooped in to take advantage of the opening that “shock therapy” provided and gobbled up valuable state owned properties and resources at fire sale prices and made themselves into billionaires overnight. They were thoroughly corrupt and basically robbed the Russian people blind.
When Vladimir Putin eventually replaced the discredited Yeltsin, he called them all to the Kremlin and laid down the law demanding that they pledge fealty to him personally and do what they were told. If they complied they would be allowed to keep their ill-gotten fortunes as long as they made sure that tribute was paid to him. Some did not and were thrown into a Siberian prison or forced into exile or died in suspicious circumstances. The rest complied and Putin is reputed to actually be the richest man in the world although his fortune is not publicly traceable.
Obviously, Donald Trump is no Vladimir Putin. He doesn’t have that kind of authority in the American system (at least not yet) or the savvy to use it as efficiently as Putin. But he thinks he’s doing the same thing. In truth he’s more of a Yeltsin, gladly accepting the attention and flattery of the oligarchs as they attempt to steer the government in their favor.
He has no idea what they’re really after. For example, at his press conference last week at mar-a-Lago he was asked if he thought Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg had changed the company’s policies to favor Trump because of his threats, he replied “probably.” I really doubt that’s the reason.
Yes, it’s true that Trump threatened Zuckerberg with life in prison for “plotting” against him during the 2020 election by “steering” Facebook against him. Now, all is forgiven as Zuckerberg has decided to follow Trump’s Rasputin, Elon Musk’s, lead and allow right wing propaganda to flourish on Facebook and Instagram to please the Dear Leader. It’s a small price to pay for such close proximity to power. And after all, Zuckerberg has long considered himself the spitting image of Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar so it’s only right.
Jeff Bezos similarly has tasked Amazon with making a $40 million dollar documentary about Melania Trump as a token of his appreciation as well as a million dollar donation to the Inauguration slush fund. In fact all the oligarchs are ponying up big bucks for that event. It’s unknown what Bill Gates got out of his visitation but one assumes that he too has seen the advantage of getting up close and personal with this elderly narcissist who is so easily swayed by flattery and attention.
And then there’s Musk himself who appears to be even more narcissistic than Trump himself and has apparently convinced himself that he has somehow been anointed as a man who will rule the world through Donald Trump. He’s not only created a grandiose outside group that basically answers to no one (well, there’s Donald Trump, but he’s clueless about what they’re up to) and now he’s meddling in other countries’ politics as well. (His recent foray into the UK has not been well received by the locals.)
The latest rumor is that he’s been approached to buy the most popular social media company in the world, Tik Tok. Between him and Zuckerberg, Trump friendly oligarchs would then dominate that media sphere for their own and Donald Trump’s benefit. The potential for reality shaping propaganda will explode exponentially.
Meanwhile, the bankers, the CEOs and the Big Money Boys on Wall Street are also on board. The Financial Times reports that they are thrilled with Trump’s election. Corporations all over the country are ostentatiously cancelling their DEI programs and any form of LGBTQ celebrations and Pride promotions. Apparently, they are all very excited to go back to just hiring the white males so they no longer have to worry about MAGA boycotts and death threats.
One Wall Street fellow told the Times, “Most of us don’t have to kiss a– because, like Trump, we love America and capitalism.” A top banker said, “I feel liberated! We can say ‘re—rd’ and ‘p–sy’ without the fear of getting canceled… it’s a new dawn.” (Interesting that he didn’t let them use his name, however.)
This is the new American oligarchy — crude, extremely wealthy men cozying up to the new president, a convicted criminal and adjudicated sexual abuser, a man who attempted to illegally overturn an election, who bungled a major national crisis and remains the most ignorant person to ever sit in the oval office. They know exactly what they can get from him. He’s much more Yeltsin than Putin.
The full picture will be clear on inauguration day with this tableau:
Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg will attend President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration Monday, according to an official involved with planning the event. They will have a prominent spot at the ceremony, seated together on the platform with other notable guests, including Trump’s Cabinet nominees and elected officials.
Oh, and Speaker of House Mike Johnson has overturned centuries of protocol and will order the flags that are flying at half mast for the death for former president Jimmy Carter to be raised on inauguration day so that none of those dignitaries will have to be reminded of what the presidency used to be before the oligarchs took over.
Salon