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BILLIONAIRES TAKE CENTER STAGE AFTER US ELECTIONS  
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Philippe Alcoy
November 17, 2024
Left Voice
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_ More present than ever in this year’s presidential campaigns,
billionaires seem poised to play a more direct role in the U.S.
government. Is this reminiscent of post-Soviet restructuring in the
heart of imperialism? _

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With the dissolution of the Soviet Union and its capitalist
restoration, the world witnessed a veritable festival of fraudulent
privatizations and appropriations of collective property by a small
group of former apparatchiks, state bureaucrats, and Mafia-like
businessmen. This was the great new capitalist class needed in the
countries of the former Eastern Bloc to make capitalist restoration
“irreversible,” as Western economists and technocrats liked to say
at the time. What followed was a large-scale theft on the part of
imperialist banks and Western political leaders, a process which
functioned in the interests of the international capitalist class as a
whole.

Yet the state remained the main actor in forming a new capitalist
class in the former bureaucratized socialist states. To ensure that
the state guaranteed and legitimized the wealth of this new
bourgeoisie, certain oligarchs began to exert direct political
influence on society, and even to hold political office themselves.
The new capitalists’ close ties with the state guaranteed them
enormous gains. At the same time, their participation in national,
regional, and local governing bodies enabled them to adopt precisely
the measures that favored their businesses. This interweaving was made
easier by the context in which it took place: a troubled period of
“transition,” a profound transformation of society and political
regimes whose legitimacy was weak but whose nature was Bonapartist and
authoritarian.

Big capitalists have always played a central role in steering
governments. The bourgeoisie has a thousand ways of directly or
indirectly influencing political life through its economic and
political levers, as well as through the media. In the most powerful
states, however, this interference is generally indirect. Rarely do
major capitalists themselves hold political office. This indirect way
of influencing political life and determining the state’s general
orientations is a way to guarantee the legitimacy of the capitalist
class.

It is striking, then, that billionaires are now assuming direct
involvement in the U.S. government. As a symbol, the richest man in
the world, Elon Musk, took an active part in the campaign for Donald
Trump, who himself has an estimated fortune of $5.6 billion
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He not only took part in rallies alongside Trump, but also used his
social media platform, X, to influence opinion. To do so, he didn’t
hesitate to spread fake news, relying on his millions of subscribers
as well as a manipulated algorithm. The _Financial Times_
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documented Musk’s activity on X in support of Trump, stating that

in the months leading up to the vote, Musk wielded his own
megaphone — X — as its owner and the most popular account with
more than 200mn followers. He flooded the platform with pro-Trump
messaging, allegations about election fraud and warnings that Kamala
Harris would destroy America should she win the White House. Over the
course of 24 hours on Tuesday, he tweeted nearly 200 times, according
to an analysis by the Financial Times, racking up about 955mn views,
after averaging more than 100 posts a day in the month leading up to
the vote.

Musk’s involvement, however, has gone beyond his frenetic activity
on X and speaking at rallies. He was also the main financial
contributor to Trump’s campaign, donating $132 million to his
“friend.” He also “offered” a million dollars a day to Trump
voters who signed a petition in favor of “free speech,” among
other things. This “investment” quickly paid off: after Trump’s
victory, Tesla shares gained 12 percent in value.

In exchange, Musk could be appointed head of the newly established
Department of Government Efficiency, which would simply be responsible
for laying off thousands of civil servants in the name of fighting
“federal bureaucracy.” But Musk’s direct involvement in the
Trump administration could also have consequences for the
billionaire’s own companies. Musk’s fortune comes mainly from
electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla and space exploration company
SpaceX. It is more than likely that Musk’s presence in the
president’s inner circle could influence decisions that favor his
interests, and even give him even easier access to international
leaders. As the _Wall Street Journal_
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writes,

Trump isn’t the only world leader that Musk has become chummy with,
blurring business and geopolitics. He has had secret conversations
with Vladimir Putin, contacts with China over its role in the
electric-vehicle market, and flirted with meeting Narendra Modi over
potential new business in India. He relies on foreign investors, with
Saudis and Qataris among the largest X backers. These relationships
could influence or complicate Trump’s foreign-policy plans.

Last September, Gideon Rachman of the _Financial Times_
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alarmed by Musk’s role in U.S. foreign policy, stating that “his
unpredictable interventions — combined with immense technological
and financial power — make him an unguided geopolitical missile,
whose whims can reshape world affairs.”

Musk is far from the only billionaire to have been involved in the
campaign. As mentioned above, Trump is a billionaire himself and has
received the support of 52 billionaires, the main contributors to the
$392 million raised for his campaign
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include Steve Wynn of Wynn Resorts, Miriam Adelson of Las Vegas Sands,
and Ray Davis, co-owner and co-chair of the Texas Rangers.

But we shouldn’t conclude that the billionaires’
“participation” was solely in Trump’s favor. Quite the opposite,
in fact. Many more billionaires supported Kamala Harris and the
Democrats. Eighty-three billionaires donated to the Harris campaign,
totaling $998 million. Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg were among the
top donors to the Democrats, giving $50 million and $100 million,
respectively. In other words, 135 billionaires largely influenced and
to some extent dictated the themes of the presidential campaign.

These exorbitant sums were spent to support a hollow campaign that was
markedly to the right, on both sides, against a backdrop of competing
reactionary rhetoric. They seem like an obscene provocation in a
context in which voters’ main concern has been inflation and the
economic situation in general. Marxist economist Michael Roberts
explains the centrality of this issue as follows
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First, the U.S. real GDP may be growing and financial asset prices
booming, but it is a different story for the average American
household, hardly any of whom own any financial assets to speculate
with. Instead, while rich investors boost their wealth, under the
Trump and Biden administrations Americans have experienced a
horrendous pandemic followed by the biggest slump in living standards
since the 1930s, driven by a very sharp rise in prices of consumer
goods and services. … Officially prices are still some 20 percent
plus higher than before the pandemic but with many other items not
covered by the official inflation index (insurance, mortgage rates
etc) rocketing. … Mortgage rates have reached their highest level in
20 years and home prices have risen to record levels. Motor and health
insurance premiums have rocketed. … If a worker has to take on a
second job to maintain his or her standard of living, he or she might
not feel so bullish about the economy. Indeed, second jobs have
increased significantly.

Trump was very demagogic on the economic issue, which enabled him to
capture a large proportion of the popular vote. Harris, claiming the
legacy of the Biden administration in every respect, could not offer
an alternative. But Trump is just as responsible for the economic
situation and will have to face up to the crisis of American
capitalism. In the coordinates of the crisis of U.S. imperialism, the
direct participation of billionaires in political life could increase
and be accompanied by tendencies toward the Bonapartization of the
regime. From this point of view, we can expect an increase in
anti-worker measures and repressive policies, as well as a possible
intensification of class struggle and resistance — all against a
government heavily influenced by cynical billionaires like Elon Musk.

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_Originally published in French on November 11 in __Révolution
Permanente_
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* 2024 Election; Donald Trump; Elon Musk; Republican Party
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