With Trump vs. Musk, Capitalist Democracy Reaches a New Low
Two billionaires, Donald Trump and Elon Musk, are squabbling over the federal government’s spoils. It seems almost quaint to worry about a revolving door between the public and private sectors now that the whole facade’s been blown off.
This week, as Donald Trump and Elon Musk's alliance breaks down in a flurry of taunts and ripostes on the social media platforms owned by each, we're witnessing something vastly cruder than corporate capture of democratic institutions. (Alex Wroblewski and Allison Robbert / AFP via Getty Images)
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels famously observed that the “executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie.” In describing the “exclusive political sway” that the ruling class has over political representatives in capitalist democracies, they may have overestimated the need for an impartial-seeming middleman. Turns out billionaires are free to shamelessly pervert democracy for personal gain, no concealment necessary.
This week, as Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s alliance breaks down in a flurry of taunts and ripostes on the social media platforms owned by each, we’re witnessing something vastly cruder than corporate capture of democratic institutions. We now have two self-interested billionaires openly playing tug of war with the federal government while 330 million Americans’ economic needs go unaddressed.
Donald Trump seems to be primarily motivated by power and attention, not money per se. Nevertheless, Trump has found several ways to use his presidential power to further enrich himself. Replenishing his coffers has enabled him to fight expensive legal battles and fund a reascent to the White House. Still, his personal fortune wasn’t quite enough to pull off a successful third presidential campaign. To make up for financial shortfalls, Trump turned to fellow billionaires, especially in tech — and above all Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who contributed nearly $300 million to Trump’s reelection effort.
In return, Musk pursued a turbocharged version of the same self-enrichment strategy, using his influence in the Trump administration to protect and expand federal contracts, subsidies, loans, and tax credits that contribute to his financial empire. Musk’s companies have benefited from public subsidies and privatizing public services for many years. The strategy over the last year has been to cement their importance, making Musk’s personal corporate empire integral to basic government operations in ways that would have been unimaginable just a decade ago.
SpaceX now holds a monopoly on American crewed spaceflight, making it the sole provider for International Space Station missions. Tesla dominated the electric vehicle market through federal incentives while positioning itself at the center of national charging infrastructure. Tesla also made $2.8 billion last year selling regulatory credits to other automakers to help them meet emissions standards. Starlink secured Pentagon and intelligence contracts for national security communications and was set to take over a multibillion-dollar contract to upgrade the Federal Aviation Administration’s air traffic control systems.
While defense contractors and tech giants have long enjoyed cozy relationships with Washington, none have achieved Musk’s unique position: simultaneous control over space transportation, defense communications, and energy infrastructure, combined with direct policy influence. While this level of government dependence on a single private actor is not exactly a novel dynamic in American capitalism, it hasn’t been glimpsed so fully since the Gilded Age.
Corporate Capture on Ketamine and Adderall
The arrangement reached its apex when Trump appointed Musk to head the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), essentially putting a major federal contractor in charge of federal spending priorities.
DOGE was technically positioned outside the government so that Musk wouldn’t have to divest from his companies. Despite being classified as “special government employees” with legal obligations to avoid conflicts of interest, only six of approximately eighty-two publicly identified DOGE employees filed required financial disclosure statements. Musk reportedly assembled a team of allies — “the A-Team” — to pursue key government positions, including Steve Davis from the Boring Company, who helped cut 80 percent of Twitter’s workforce, and Omead Afshar, who assisted with 14,000 Tesla layoffs. SpaceX employees were considered for Defense Department roles, while Tesla executives were eyed for positions dealing with autonomous vehicle regulation. It was a textbook case of regulatory capture, except the captured agency was the entire executive branch.
The profound level of integration between Musk’s enterprises and the federal government became clear during this week’s public breakup. When Musk criticized Trump’s spending bill, the president threatened to cancel all federal contracts with Musk’s companies. Musk retaliated by threatening to withdraw SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft — the only American vehicle now capable of ferrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The exchange revealed just how intertwined Musk’s business interests had become with basic government functions.
Trump’s administration systematically created this dependency by steering contracts toward Musk’s companies while regulatory agencies provided favorable treatment. As a result, Musk gained unprecedented access to government resources and policymaking, while Trump secured a high-profile tech ally with plenty of cash and cultural influence. The arrangement benefited both parties — until it didn’t.
The Mask Slips
On Thursday and Friday, one suspected that media outlets had prewritten paragraphs ready to deploy in articles about the alliance’s devolution. Trump has never tolerated rivals for attention or power, and Musk’s public profile was bound to trigger the president’s competitive instincts. The only question was when the inevitable implosion would occur.
The social media spectacle might be entertaining, but the underlying reality is deeply concerning. The Trump-Musk arrangement represents a new phase of American oligarchy. If previously we were concerned with corporate lobbying, billionaire campaign donations, and politicians’ tacit solidarity with business elites, we now have to contend with open and unabashed capitalist political takeover. A revolving door between the public and private sectors seems like a quaint concern now that the entire facade has been blown open.
Whether they’re fighting or collaborating, the result is the same: a small group of ultrarich, out-of-touch, self-interested elites making personally motivated decisions that affect millions of Americans. Meanwhile, average people continue to face housing crises, stagnant wages, inadequate health care, growing debt, and crumbling infrastructure. These demoralizing pressures — along with the lack of an effective political opposition to Trump, desensitization to rule by the rich, and political polarization along culture-war lines — have left the electorate listless in the face of these betrayals. Trump and Musk are not worried about reprisal from the masses; they have no opponent now but each other.
The spectacle of Trump and Musk’s public meltdown reveals something profound about the current state of American capitalism. It has become so thoroughly captured by individual billionaires, and the electorate has become so inured to this reality, that there’s apparently no reason to dissemble anymore.