The Oligarchy's Best Friend

With all of Trump’s alarming moves toward authoritarianism, it’s easy to overlook that he is also an ordinary plutocrat.

by Robert Kuttner September 9, 2025

One of the more emblematic moments of any presidency happened late last week. In a follow-up to some of the richest men (and they’re all men) in America getting prime seating at Donald Trump’s inauguration, these titans returned to Washington to butter up the president some more at a dinner meeting. No fewer than 33 Silicon Valley executives and venture capitalists attended the dinner, 13 of them billionaires, all of them fawning over Trump to persuade him to continue to adopt their preferred policies.

Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg sat right at Trump’s side, and Microsoft’s Bill Gates was next to Melania. Zuckerberg fumbled when Trump asked directly how much he would invest in the U.S., throwing out $600 billion. He was later caught on a hot mic admitting that he made up the number.

But for all the humiliation of sucking up to an autocrat, it’s Big Tech and big business getting the last laugh from Trump. Maybe some corporate leaders are unnerved by tariffs, but they’re mostly getting exactly what they would from any Republican president: low taxes and deregulation. Trump is going out of his way to deliver, groveling before Big Money far more than Big Money is groveling before him.

Trump told everyone he was different, a right-wing populist who would stick it to the establishment. But the MAGA voters who supported Trump because they hoped their lives would get better are plainly getting sacrificed to the oligarchy. Will Trump’s Democratic opposition get more strategic about pointing out that reality and connecting the dots?
https://prospect.org/politics/2025-09-09-trump-oligarchys-best-friend/