What Elon Musk's Billions Have Bought

Unelected, the world's richest man is flaunting his new power and proximity to Trump

Who’s in charge? (Photo by Brandon Bell via Getty Images)

Elon Musk’s continued high visibility post-election is a disturbing sign that democracy—that is, our ability to decide our own future together—is being supplanted by oligarchic rule. That reality was underscored this week by the release of federal election data documenting that Musk, the world’s richest man, spent $277 million of his own money to assist Donald Trump’s re-installation in the White House.

This massive spending is not a big surprise, not after he tossed million-dollar prizes at Pennsylvania registered voters—18 in all—who participated in his “lottery” by signing a petition. Not after he could be seen excitedly jumping up and down at Trump rallies and promising to spend tens of millions to help get out the vote. Musk’s spending spree included $20.5 million to support an ad campaign blatantly lying that the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg held similar views to Trump on abortion.

But if billionaire donors typically keep a lower, less ostentatious profile after they’ve spent their money to avoid any appearance of conflict, Musk has been busy flaunting his increased power in Trump’s inner circle. While the guy who was actually on the ballot alongside Trump—perhaps you remember him, JD Vance—has been practically invisible, there was Musk on board Trump’s plane eating fast food with Donald, Don Jr. and RFK Jr.; sitting directly to the right of Trump at a Mar-a-Lago Thanksgiving dinner and chatting up Barron who was seated directly left of his father; arriving to Congress with one of his 12 children on his shoulder like he was a conquering hero; hosting Trump for a SpaceX rocket launch in Texas; hanging out for days on end at Mar-a-Lago and weighing in on Trump’s nominees; hopping on a call with Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky; standing near Trump and Emmanuel Macron this weekend at the re-opening of Notre Dame in Paris. No JD, no Melania, in sight.

Musk has so far been variously referred to—seriously and jokingly—as Trump’s Vice President, as his Co-President, as the President, and even as a replacement for Melania as First Lady. All of these titles—except the last one—may miss the point because they assume that he could hold any of these positions defined by our founding fathers. But foreign-born Musk, with wealth exceeding $300 billion, has made it clear with the support of his best buddy Donald that he doesn’t need the commitment of voters to get and take power.

While Trump is flaunting his desire for oligarchy by surrounding himself with a proposed cabinet, key ambassadors and other top positions comprised of nearly two dozen billionaires—never mind that many of his working-class voters were mistakenly under the impression that he cared about their interests—Musk’s stated position is co-chairman along with billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy of a made-up Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE (which just happens to approximate Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency, dogecoin).

So what if this pretend department to cut government expenditures has no constitutional authority and cannot act without the acquiescence of Congress, which actually possesses the power to determine and allocate governmental spending? So what if DOGE, essentially intended to regulate the regulators, is being co-directed by Musk whose companies in the last year alone were reportedly promised $3 billion in 100 different contracts at 17 federal agencies (and have earned more than five times that amount over the last decade)?

Rather than question his conflicts of interest and his inevitable desire to serve his companies, what if the kinds of cuts they have in mind—including billions in healthcare, education, aviation safety, housing assistance and medical research—are largely opposed by most Americans? And so what if their proposed ambition to cut $2 trillion (now down to some $500 billion) by massive layoffs, slashing regulations and shutting down federal agencies causes massive pain? Musk seems determined to show that he—like his new best pal and day one dictator Donald—doesn’t need to bend to mere members of Congress, the majority’s policy preferences or the Constitution’s parameters. After all, Musk and Trump have fortunes to expand and egos to feed, unimpeded by tired old traditions like avoiding conflicts of interest or respecting the will of the people. For them, oligarchy—rule by a rich few serving their own corrupt, selfish purposes—is the new black.

While Trump ridiculously referred to DOGE as potentially “the Manhattan Project of our time”—never mind that that project was about building a bomb to save democracy not destroy it—here’s how Ramaswamy articulated the spirit of this nasty operation last month at a Mar-a-Lago gala. "I don't know if you've got to know Elon yet, but he doesn't bring a chisel, he brings a chainsaw, and we're going to be taking it to that bureaucracy," Ramaswamy said. "It's going to be a lot of fun."

Speaking of chainsaws and “fun,” you may recall that Musk spent $44 billion to buy Twitter nearly three years ago, asserting the best of intentions and his commitment to free speech. Calling himself a free speech absolutist, Musk said at the time, “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.”

We’ve since learned what that meant: Driving out progressive voices, prioritizing right-wing and even neo-Nazi and other extremist users, firing over 6,000 employees including the moderation team meant to minimize abuse, and, of course, ending the platform’s ban on Donald Trump. All that plus jiggering the algorithm so that his 200 million-plus users and everyone else on the renamed X would get plenty of free speech from its top user—himself. In the months leading up to the election, that particularly meant spreading disinformation about Kamala Harris and advocating for the need to elect Trump.

For the record, my final post on Musk’s platform on Thanksgiving Day was this: “Nobody elected Elon Musk.” It generated over 3 million views and 12,000 replies, most of which—like piranhas circling bloody meat—demonstrated both the site’s hateful users’ pleasure in abuse and their support for Musk. Suffice to say, I’m glad to be gone from that hellscape (and have increasingly focused my social media efforts on Bluesky). My point was simple: The power or display of power that Musk is throwing around was not granted by the voters.

We will soon see whether the Musk fanboys on X are an aberration—that most Americans do not prefer the richest man in the world and unelected oligarch deciding their fate. That will be particularly discernible if and when Trump triggers tariffs and begins deportations, both of which will cause a rise in prices.

But for now, we should pay attention to how far Trump and other members of our elected government go in acquiescing to Musk. It will tell us how quickly they’re working to end our representative system of self-governance and how fiercely this billionaire takeover should be a focus of the opposition.

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