Former President Donald Trump has one key factor to thank for remaining a viable presidential candidate, Steven Greenhouse wrote for Slate — a large chunk of the billionaire class has decided to back him.
"There’s no denying that billionaires are trying to bend society to their will," wrote Greenhouse. "America’s 800-plus billionaires hold over $6 trillion in wealth, more wealth than the bottom half of U.S. households" — indeed, they own a larger percent of America's wealth than in the Gilded Age. "And they will do whatever they have to do to keep things that way."
Tech tycoon Elon Musk is the most prominent example, Greenhouse noted, between sinking $75 million into a super PAC that has, however clumsily and with humiliating setbacks, managed most of Trump's voter outreach operation, and tilting content on his X platform, formerly Twitter, sharply in-favor of pro-Trump speech and advertising. But Musk is by no means alone.
"Timothy Mellon, the billionaire heir to a Gilded Age fortune, has given an astounding amount — $125 million — to a pro-Trump super PAC. That’s more than the combined donations of 3 million typical Americans giving $40 each. Miriam Adelson, the widow of casino tycoon Sheldon Adelson, has contributed $100 million to, among other things, help finance a flood of pro-Trump ad buys in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania," he wrote.
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Meanwhile, cardboard magnate Dick Uihlein, former Marvel chair Ike Perlmutter, and TikTok mega-investor Jeff Yass have also contributed tens of millions each to pro-Trump groups.
Then, of course, there's Rupert Murdoch, whose right-wing news empire is going as strong as ever in favor of the GOP, even as some tension has developed with Trump complaining about insufficient help from Fox News and even demanding they illegally pull negative ads against him.
Not all billionaires are in the GOP camp — notably, Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates has committed $50 million to a pro-Kamala Harris group after years of sitting on the political sidelines. But the intervention of the Republican mega-rich in democracy is clear, Greenhouse wrote.
"Many Americans fail to realize just how much the super-rich use their financial muscle to twist and tilt policymaking to their liking," Greenhouse concluded. "Notwithstanding his promises about helping forgotten Americans, it is crystal clear that if Trump wins in November, he will cater to the ultrawealthy, as he did in his first term, and do what they want on tax cuts, regulations, and much more. And what they want is often profoundly at odds with what’s best for building a healthy society."