As is the case with Musk, Trump will likely repay the super-rich for their obsequiousness, and not just via tax cuts (although those will certainly help the nation’s richest); he’s already tapped more than a dozen billionaires for potential roles in his administration, including Musk and WWE cofounder Linda McMahon.
Even the non-billionaire picks seem poised to benefit. Venture capitalist David Sacks caped for Trump in the 2024 election, and his MAGA turn has netted him an appointment as Trump’s AI and crypto czar, signaling that the new administration will be more favorable to people with large cryptocurrency holdings than Biden’s administration. (Trump is also involved in a cryptocurrency business venture that could potentially benefit from a light regulatory touch.)
Additionally, Trump is replacing Federal Trade Commission (FTC) chair Lina Khan, who fought hard to regulate big tech companies, with Andrew Ferguson, a current FTC commissioner who consumer protection experts expect will be more favorable on the antitrust issues Khan made a cornerstone of her run. Trump has nominated Paul Atkins, a cryptocurrency advocate, to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which will likely be another big win for tech and the crypto industry.
There’s more: CNN reported in December that Trump’s allies have floated eliminating the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), a bank regulator established during the Great Depression that protects bank deposits of up to $250,000. Under the current FDIC system, if a bank fails — as many have in just the last 24 years — depositors would not lose their life savings, provided they had less than $250,000 in their accounts. Eliminating the FDIC would remove that crucial safety net and make everyone’s savings accounts a heck of a lot less safe. It would also destabilize the US banking system, which some crypto boosters speculate could push people into crypto, because US currency, by that point, would be somewhat less secure, once again boosting the tech barons who are in turn boosting Trump. (Experts do say that Trump is unlikely to do this, since it’s politically radioactive.)
Over the last half-century, wealth inequality has skyrocketed in the United States. Researchers with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive think tank, have found that three-quarters of all wealth in the US is concentrated among the top 10% wealthiest families in the nation. The country’s 800 billionaires, including Musk, Bezos, and Zuckerberg, hold about 3.8% of all US wealth, according to Americans for Tax Fairness, to the tune of about $6 trillion. And their wealth has reportedly doubled since Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, which the Brookings Institute found disproportionately hurt the middle class. Now, a chunk of those billionaires are in or close to power under Trump 2.0, and they’re likely to get richer and more powerful over the next four years, at everyone else’s expense — provided, of course, that they bend the knee.
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