Biden Bids Farewell with a Warning

Trump and his billionaire buddies threaten our democracy

Credit: Getty Images

Let’s talk money — big money. You may have noticed that the incoming president is not exactly surrounding himself with average Americans, seeking their input on how to make his version of America “great.” Instead, it’s a lot of guys who can write multimillion-dollar checks without thinking twice.

For a candidate who cozied up to everyday hardworking Americans looking for an economic savior, get ready for a reality check. Donald Trump doesn’t give two hoots about the price of eggs, but he loves the golden goose. The president-elect, you may have noticed, hangs with only the haves, not the have-nots.

Increasingly, those haves are rich beyond comprehension. Take Elon Musk. His net worth is said to be north of $400 billion. How much money is that? If Musk spent a million dollars every day, an incomprehensible amount, it would take him more than a thousand years to blow through his billions.

Increasing numbers of Americans are convinced that we have too few people with too much money. And under Donald Trump, too much power. In this there is plenty to worry about for the future of American democracy.

It was a key point that President Biden made Wednesday night.

In his farewell address from the Oval Office, Biden did not air grievances or dwell on the past — nor did he mention his successor. He did pat himself and his administration on the back a few times, but that, surprisingly, wasn’t what he most wanted to tell the American people.

His major point was to warn us about what is coming.

His dual concerns are connected: that there has been an exponential rise in the concentration of power among the ultra-wealthy.

“Today an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.”

And that power is being enhanced by a concerted and coordinated effort to spread disinformation.

“Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation, enabling the abuse of power. The free press is crumbling [or] disappearing. Social media is giving up on fact-checking. The truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit.”

Let’s talk about this oligarchy that “is taking shape.” One could argue it is already here. The word oligarchy comes from Greek, meaning ruled by the few. In this case, those few also have a lot of money — a staggering amount.

Should all his Cabinet nominees make it through the confirmation process, which so far seems likely, Trump will have 13 billionaires among his closest advisers. And that doesn’t even include Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, as their roles as heads of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency are not Cabinet level.

Clearly, Trump loves to surround himself with wealth — and not just opulent homes and private jets, but rich people too. The combined net worth of just three of his inauguration guests, Musk, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, is almost a trillion dollars. That is with a T. Only 19 countries in the world have a GDP of a trillion or more.

The concentration of wealth and its corollary, economic inequality, has been bad and is getting much worse.

The Congressional Budget Office reports wealth inequality has increased significantly since 1989. The richest 10% of Americans now own 60% of the country’s wealth, while the bottom half holds only 6%.

What accounts for the growing disparity? Pay, for one thing. The Economic Policy Institute found that CEO compensation has grown a confounding 940% since 1978, while worker pay rose by a relatively paltry 12% over the same time period.

And those who are wealthy and becoming wealthier are gaining power and influence to go along with (and because of) their billions. It is an economic chicken and egg. A Pew Research Center poll of 40,000 adults in 36 countries found that 60% of respondents believe political influence enjoyed by the wealthiest is a major contributor to economic inequality.

Trump doesn’t want just to surround himself with the uber-rich. He wants in on the cash, and boy is he getting it. Corporations are falling over themselves trying to give millions to the incoming president.

According to Axios, Trump’s various funds (the inauguration, Super PACs, the RNC, political nonprofits, and the Trump Presidential Library) are on track to take in $500 million in donations by the summer. “It used to be $1 million was a big number. Now we’re looking at some folks giving like $10 or $20 million,” a Trump adviser told Axios. All this for a guy who cannot run for president again.

Those millions will help Trump, who will technically be a lame-duck president, wield financial and political influence by supporting loyalist candidates and punishing perceived enemies.

The newest and the biggest corporate player in election politics is the cryptocurrency industry. It is also a perfect example of the rich amassing political power to get richer.

Crypto is a digital currency that allows people to make online payments directly to each other. The virtual currency is not legislated and has no intrinsic value. It’s like the economic Wild West, with few rules and no oversight. Crypto bros want to keep the government out of their business. To do that, they have filled the halls of Congress with pro-crypto legislators.

It is no surprise what happened in the last election when the crypto industry donated $245 million to Trump and other like-minded candidates. That sum accounts for half of all corporate donations in the 2024 election cycle, according to the Federal Election Commission. Most of the crypto-backed candidates won. The new 119th Congress boasts 300 members considered pro-crypto.

At the end of his final speech to the American people, Biden suggested that we faced a similar threat a century ago, when the ultra-rich industrialists tried to run the country. But “the American people stood up to the robber barons back then,” Biden said. Now it's “your turn to stand guard.”

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Dan