The newly reinstated president of the US, Donald Trump, has surrounded himself with — or perhaps found himself surrounded by—some of the wealthiest people from around the world. Specifically, among Trump’s posse are the three wealthiest people on the planet: X’s Elon Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg.
To some, this is the new elite. To others, including former presidents, it is an emerging oligarchy —and with Trump’s reinstatement and the surrounding big-billionaire crowd, concerns about such immense power could mean for the rest of the world.
Joining the Dinner Table
Many of the world’s super-wealthy have been aiming to join Trump’s “dinner table,” either to reap the rewards of Trump’s election, pay respect to the president, or protect the future of their businesses.
“Some of the business people who have been cozying up to Trump represent companies that get a lot of government contracts or are worried about government regulation,” Darrell West, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, observed to Reuters.
And it’s not just the world’s top three wealthiest individuals who are cozying up; Australian billionaires are joining the dinner table, too. James Packer, Gina Rinehart, and Anthony Pratt have expressed their loyalty to Trump.
Not so transparent in her hopes was Rinehart, who addressed Trump in her newspaper ad as “To the Outstanding Leader,” writing, “who understands that high government tape, regulation and taxes do nothing to encourage investment.”
Rinehart went on in interviews to express her hope that Australia would be “inspired by Donald Trump” and Australian governments to adopt his policies: “We should set up a DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) immediately, reduce government waste, government tape , and regulations.”
Pratt also aligned himself with Trump’s agenda. In the New York Times pages, he told Trump, “I’m honored to support your call to Make American Great Again by bringing manufacturing jobs back home.” Pratt has long sought to further a relationship with the president. He invited Trump to factory openings across the US and donated $10 million to MAGA Inc. just days before the election.
Concerns About Trump’s Reinstatement
In his farewell address from the Oval Office, Joe Biden warned America of “the dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra-wealthy people, and the dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left unchecked.”
“Today,” Biden said, “an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms.”
Rhodes, the author of Stinking Rich: The Four Myths of the Good Billionaire, agrees with Biden’s concerns and argues that the same risks exist for other liberal democracies such as Australia.
“The question is: is Australian culture robust enough to see through it? It’s kind of characteristic of Australian culture to question these things, to not be duped by this sort of colonisation. Can Australian culture withstand this new expansion of influence?”
Rhodes also argues that Trump is helpful for billionaires seeking to justify their extreme wealth in a world of widening inequality, describing the “vigilante billionaire,” who is one with “an admirable disrespect for the law and convention and who faced with a social ill that government is unable or unwilling to fix, “comes in and single-handedly fixes it and then rides off into the sunset.”
Rhodes further explains that, when Trump speaks of saving America, “it’s him and only him who can save America,” much in the same way that, if you listen to Musk speak about why he bought X, “it was because he wanted to be this messianic saviour of democracy.”
However, these vigilante billionaires use the myth to justify actions and policies that entrench inequality.
“That’s why I say it moralizes billionaires because it makes them look good: they’re the heroes. But what this myth does is mask the fact that they’re sequestering increasingly large proportions of the world’s wealth when many others are going hungry. It’s a means of preventing moves toward a more equal and fair society.”
