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The tech oligarchy has been here for years

What really drove the rise of Biden's 'tech industrial complex', and how to stop it

And he’s not alone, of course, among tech titans more openly wielding political power, and nakedly paying fealty to Trump—Sam Altman, Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, and more have all swung by Mar-a-Lago and donated $1 million to his inauguration fund, and Jeff Bezos and Patrick Soon-Shiong killed op-eds critical of Trump at the newspapers they own. There are of course numerous ways that titans like Bezos and Musk, who are also the richest men in the world, have long wielded their power in the overt manner of oligarchs past—demanding favorable conditions for their businesses, dodging taxes, evading regulations, pushing to render laws that protect workers unconstitutional, and so on. Musk again most bluntly leads the way; he can both dump $270 million into Trump’s campaign at the bat of an eye, *and* turn to the social media platform he owns (and has algorithmically rigged to ensure his posts always get maximum visibility) to criticize a spending bill he doesn’t like, target vulnerable political opponents, and get a new one passed in its stead.

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