WASHINGTON The king of political spectacle Donald Trump thinks carefully about who can appear in the pictures behind him.
Therefore, it is no coincidence that a few days after Trump’s inauguration, his ministerial choices are in the best places sitting next to each other world the three richest people: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg.
Their combined wealth is more than 800 billion euros.
There’s nothing Trump likes more than former heretics who swallow their pride and come to him to show remorse and loyalty.
All three business leaders are such converts who previously criticized Trump but have now found him. Anyone’s past sins can be forgiven if they can just prove themselves to be useful to Trump.
In the pictures of the inauguration, Trump wants the whole world to see that by relying on him, it is possible to rise from a multi-billionaire to something bigger: an American oligarch.
At least Musk’s calling him an oligarch is justified. He is getting own office right next to the White House and possibly even access to Trump’s office.
Oligarchs are business leaders who also have political influence.
Bezos and Zuckerberg need to prove their faith a little more. Bezos gets to keep the Washington Post he owns, and Zuckerberg has to push Trump’s positive messages up on Facebook and Instagram so they get their own rewards.
See in the video how Trump opened Musk’s role in his new administration in December:
Trump has got finally on the side of the country’s top business elite, who for decades looked down on him. Many now fear that with the techno-oligarchs on their side, Trump is invincible.
One man disagrees. He is Steve Bannona radical right-wing political background devil who jumped on Trump’s bandwagon long before others.
That’s it Hitlerof Bannon is said to have thoughtwhen Trump announced his candidacy for president in 2015. Bannon meant his comparison to Hitler as a compliment.
Bannon helped Trump in his first election campaign and served briefly in the White House as Trump’s adviser until the two could no longer fit in the same room.
Last year, Bannon spent four months in jail for refusing to testify to Congress about the events of the 2021 Capitol attack. Bannon has also worked diligently as a pioneer in what Musk is continuing right now, that is, in spreading the means of American right-wing radicalism across the Atlantic to Europe.
Bannon and Musk however, the differences are tense, and this week flared up properly.
The Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera was able to ask last week a few questions From Bannon. I guess this assumed that comments to a European magazine would not be quoted in the United States.
Bannon gave Musk a full-on.
– I’m going to get Musk out of here by the inauguration.
– He is a really bad guy. I have taken it upon myself to bring him down.
– Musk should return to South Africa.
– He presents half-baked ideas that only promote global techno-feudalism.
– His only goal is to become a billionaire.
– Gaining power through wealth. That’s what he focuses on. The American working people are not going to put up with it.
Of course quotes spread to the American media. Bannon realized he was talking past his mouth and gave yesterday Tuesday For Politico a long interview in which he softened his words.
Bannon said Musk deserves his seat at the table because he put so much money on the line for Trump and continues to be involved in politics now on the European side.
Bannon also boasted that Musk has the “two core tactical weapons of modern politics”: an endless amount of money and the popular social media platform X, where Musk decides whose voice is heard.
– There are not many governments in Europe that can survive Musk’s attacks, Bannon stated.
Bannon repeated on Tuesday, however, originally from the left Giánis Varoufákis techno-feudalism of the concept made known. The term refers to a development where both money and power flow into the hands of a few leaders of technology companies, and the market is no longer able to function freely.
– As soon as I can change Musk from a techno-feudalist to a populist nationalist, we will start to make real progress, Bannon said.
Bannon clearly worries about Trump’s attraction to techno-billionaires, who completely disagree with Bannon, especially on immigration policy.
Bannon himself is a staunch ethno-nationalist who does not want more immigrants to the United States, even for work. Technology leaders, on the other hand, support work visas, which are intended for people immigrating to the United States for specialist jobs, of which the United States grants about 65,000 each year.
Trump sided with Musk and the tech leaders on the issue and line at the end of December that they support the visa system. Bannon now fears that by clinging to the support of billionaires, Trump is no longer on the pulse of the people.
With his larger-than-life personality, Trump is so far able to hold together a coalition that includes both the three richest people in the world and the disappointed Dunars of the heartlands.
After the Trump era, however, Republicans may be in trouble if the party gains a reputation as a puppet of the techno-oligarchs.