Billionaires
NEW YORK — Elon Musk, the world’s only trillionaire, has quietly become the biggest known donor in this year’s midterm elections, doling out more than $276 million since July to try to save Republican majorities in Congress.
The numbers, first reported by the New York Times ahead of this week’s federal filing deadline, were confirmed by Andrew Romeo, a spokesperson for Musk’s super PAC.
By Gregg Wall (10-30-2026)
The events of the last two weeks remind us that the US is a democracy in name only, just as the US economy is capitalist in name only. We have: a killer and malign oligarchy; two-party, game theory fraud; rampant gerrymandering – structurally established in the US Senate; rigged elections; unlimited bribes and kickbacks; round the clock day trading in the halls of congress; an evil empire, a nation covered in blood; the entire house of cards propped up on debt and deficits, thanks to a criminal central bank and exorbitant privilege.
And, of course, the most hideous economic model ever devised… colonialism, dereg, hyper financialization, globalization, looting, necro economics, neoliberalism… which is nothing more than an unrelenting attack upon Americans by a criminal cadre of billionaires, bankers, the political duopoly, and multinational monopolies.
With the U.S. election upon us I was reminded of all this by the world’s richest man’s presence yet again, meddling in the affairs of our democracy, or the twisted version of what passes for US democracy, where said oligarch can buy the state.
There he is ‘MeriKKKa, your tax dollars at work, effectively a man child, blowing approximately a half billion dollars, and yet no different from any other billionaire, where every whim and desire must be sated and attended to by fawning sycophants, executives, and every politician outright owned and subject to blackmail. In all the nonsense about libertarianism and rugged individualism, America often forgets we paid for this tyrant. Musk’s great wealth, the loans, the grants, the bailouts, the corporate welfare, no bid contracts, a stock market rigged to perfection, tax cuts, the oligarchy tax code, subsidies, carbon credits & rebates, privatization schemes that have enriched him beyond the imagination of us mere mortals… and then there’s Musk’s ultimate purchase, the U.S. government itself (just to make sure things run smoothly, for Musk & Co.)
And so many still believe the Ayn Randian fairy tale that Musk is self-made. Musk of course, is not only product of U.S. taxpayer dollars and the government, but of a system rife with corruption. It begs the question, why would the world’s richest self-professed libertarian buy U.S. elections and the government? Since obviously, Musk is a rugged individualist, Mr. Bootstraps… you know, he did it all by himself? Because the reality is Mr. Musk owes his empire to the state, the aforementioned government contracts, government largesse, state and state policy capture (all of it, fiscal, monetary, judicial, regulatory, & foreign policy capture), and the American public/taxpayer. Musk buys the government because it’s a sure bet: boom or bust… thanks to the FED, the money flows.
For now.
Turns out, Mr. Libertarian is, arguably, perhaps indisputably, a socialist, a totalitarian… but only for himself… no socialism for the peasantry. Being the world’s richest man means the public must be continually held down. Socialism makes the laboring classes soft… isn’t that right, Elon? In Elon World, Musk buying the United States government to feed taxpayer money and the U.S. credit line into Tesla, Space X, and inflate Musk, AI, and War stocks is all good and normal. So, what if it feeds Musk’s avarice, insatiable megalomania, and narcissism with delusions of dark enlightenment, a Muskian Reich, and global domination. All perfectly normal.
Musk, of course, is not alone. Oligarchy and concentrated wealth into the hands of a few is the biggest problem in the world today. Oligarchy is the father of all the other lies and sins: fossil fuels, endless wars & violence, the resurgence - and rapid decline - of the populist right, serial corruption in government, insider trading throughout the government, catastrophic debt & deficits, financialization, the collapse of the center, the crushing of labour & families, endless for-profit wars, an affordability & healthcare crisis, a planet in flames. Forget the duopoly, you want to change the system go straight to the top: Musk & Oligarchy.
The ultra rich, of course, believe they are above the law, above taxation, above the people. You and I will own nothing, and we’ll damn well like it and they, of course, will own everything. Their right-wing and proto feudal beliefs (aka the privatization of power) … wearing the mask of markets, technology, & futurity… are an abomination. The façade… the markets, technology, the MSM and social media, and the left/right political continuum… will not absolve the predatory few from the disaster of their making. They, the oligarchy, are most certain of their future, even as a tech bubble grows and staggers towards possibly unwinding, the debt crisis becomes more manifest, food prices and the price of life become untenable and unaffordable, the oligarchy becomes more obscenely rich, and the students globally grow more restive and drift into open revolt. In Musk’s and the oligarchy’s haste to destroy democracy, install a dictatorship of capital, crush the currency’s purchasing power to hide catastrophic debt, dismantle the very institutions that offer a buffer between themselves and catastrophic poverty, they’ve overlooked history. Turns out, the younger generation have gotten a whiff of the oligarchy’s future and see no reason to go silently into slavery, endless & unrelenting necro economic and political violence, and that good night.
Here, Toqueville is instructive and provides cautionary analysis.
Toqueville in his book, the Old Regime and the French Revolution, wrote about the public rebelling against the King, who had bankrupted France and foisted unseemly taxes on the peasantry, while letting the clergy and nobility off the hook for taxation. Moreover, in King Louis XVI’ and predecessors’ consolidation and concentration of power, the monarchy had destroyed the institutions that protected peasants from the profiteers, speculators, and the rich... protected the price of their daily bread... therefore, the peasantry and the philosophers & writers of that day reasoned, why not destroy the King and monarchy? Louis XVI’s antecedents, especially the Sun King, had consolidated power and therefore, liability. Lousi XVI had run up the debt further funding the American revolution, heavily taxed the peasantry, while royalty, nobles, and clergy lived in decadence and indulgence. The peasantry, the 99%, were isolated, cut off, and preyed upon, by the first and second estate.
The French youth, like today's youth, were just crazy enough, naive and poorly educated enough, to believe they could do just that, destroy the King and create a better world. And so, they did. Le reste appartient à l'histoire.
It all sounds very familiar, does it not, with the situation Americans and the West often find themselves in today: out of control elites, great wealth & privilege, hideous and unfair taxation, DOGE dismantling the state and jobs, the consolidation of power and privilege, skyrocketing food prices, unprecedented inequality, and a powder keg. Today’s oligarchy should be careful, very careful of what they wish for. They just might get it.
When a single individual or a cadre of oligarchs, can destroy well established buffers between the public and themselves -- say crony democracy, no matter how flawed -- and said oligarchy can egregiously tax the public to pay for massive wealth transfer, from the public to themselves -- when Mr. Musk can buy the government and set policy: America is no longer a democracy. Today’s oligarchy is not only a danger to humanity and the planet, they are a menace to themselves.
Therefore, Musk and the oligarchy consolidate both power and liability. Liability that I don’t believe the billionaire class has fully thought through or underwritten. I really hope de grandes ambitions don’t work out for the privileged and powerful. These things have a nasty habit of self-correcting.
As for We, The People: Nous sommes l'État.
Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2026
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