Annual Oxfam reports Inequalities in the planet have already accustomed us to being bad, and it will only get worse. This time we read again about the evidence wealth of billionaires (an increase from $13 trillion to $15), their evidence number (already 2769) and yet evidence profits. While the number of people surviving in poorness has not decreased since 1990, the wealth of billionaires increases faster than always – by $6 billion each day, and the 10 richest among them gains 100 million all day.
This besides leads to an increase in the political influence of billionaires, but we seldom have the chance to see their power as exposed and devoid of any camouflage as it did to the inauguration of Donald Trump. The selection of visitors and their planting clearly showed who truly governs the United States and, to a large extent, the world.
The Oligarchs in the front row...
In honorary places, alongside the household of the president-elect and erstwhile presidents, and in front of even members of the fresh cabinet, a group of billionaires were placed at the head of the largest technology companies: the owner of Tesla and the X Elon Musk platform, the president of Google Sundar Pichai, the head of Amazon Jeff Bezos and yet the head of Facebook of Mark Zuckerberg. The second has been sucking up to the fresh administration for respective weeks, which is simply a sign of little active moderation on Meta platforms and simultaneous giving up fact-checking, which in practice means greater tolerance for homophonic or xenophobic content, and an increase in conspiracy explanation coverage.
Trump's most crucial ally, however, is undoubtedly Elon Musk, who utilized his own platform to agitate Republicans before the November vote and generously funded their run – the value of support from the richest man in the planet has reached out to $277 million. A freshly baked oligarch not giving up business activity, he will besides join the fresh cabinet, and even before the inauguration of Trump he was able to participate in a number of meetings with planet leaders, embodying the progressive fusion of financial and political elites.
It is not accidental to usage here the word associated alternatively with Russia and the billionaires there, who immediately took hold after the collapse of the USSR. The acquisition of power by the oligarchs prevented the real democratization of many post-Soviet countries at the turn of the century, and now the border between the planet of large business and government circles is becoming increasingly blurred in the US. Even if these 2 environments have never been far apart, their merger has just reached another level, the best examples of which are Trump himself and his closest associates.
And in government administration
During the election campaign, a Republican candidate introduced himself as a man of the people, thundered against liberal elites, and reached for a French fryer in McDonald's, helping voters forget that he lives in a gold palace all day. After the triumph Donald Trump rapidly abandoned appearances, citing key positions mainly billionaires – among the members of the fresh administration he prides himself on specified wealth, and the full value of their assets is record $340 billion. Trump thus pierced his first word and shamed Joe Biden's cabinet, whose full value was "marne" 118 million, so 2881 times less. This did not prevent Republicans from talking about a corrupt ruling elite preying on average Americans.
This will be changed by a squad of billionaires, including real property magnates and stock marketplace investors. Linda McMahon, wife of the wrestling icon and erstwhile president of the planet Wrestling Entartainment, whose mission will be to effectively disassemble her department, as Trump's teaching issues should be addressed by individual states alternatively than by the national government. Against colleagues Marco Rubio, with $5 million in wealth, may be considered a plebeius, which inactive puts him in 1 percent of the wealthiest Americans.
The aforementioned Musk, the richest man in the world, will in turn head the Department of Government Performance (DOGE), which is to be liable for cuts in the national administration and at the same time increase its productivity. Republicans do not see the problem in the fact that savings in state institutions will be sought by the owner of respective large companies, any of which (like SpaceX) are dependent on government grants and at the same time compete with public entities. The name of the fresh department refers to the cryptocurrency promoted by Musk, but the concept of conflict of interest remains unknown to the fresh administration.
TikTok thanks Trump, that is politics under large tech
In early January, the TikTok platform in the USA, issued by the Joe Biden Administration, was to be banned from further operation due to concerns about the safety of data collected by the Chinese application and the hazard of its usage for disinformation sowing. After a short break, TikTok resumed its operation in the US, the users welcomed the news that the anticipation of continuing to usage the platform was due to president Trump's “exertions”.
Throwing TikTok's lifeline by the new-old president may surprise us if we look at his policies in the erstwhile term. Trump wanted to ban the platform, that is, in practice, to do the same thing that the Biden administration yet did. What led to specified a change of opinion with the United States leader? any point to the fact that right-wing creators have a clear advantage in the Chinese app, so the TikToku run helped Trump in his election victory.
There is besides a plan to take over the platform partially – the condition for Trump to suspend the ban is to turn TikTok into a company half owned by the American side. Who's gonna get that part of cake? The president himself spoke of many curious parties and it is possible that his goal is to get another social media about a friendly board.
The guest list at the inauguration announces the presidency in a close alliance with technological giants, including those who were erstwhile with Trump quarrelled (like Meta Mark Zuckenberg). The president promises generous subsidies for this sector, while defending his interests in a fight, for example, with the European Union, which is trying to regulate American giants. Stopping US expansion in this respect can be more hard than blocking Trump's Temptations to Greenland.
