As Washington gears up for the second inauguration of Donald Trump, the Democrats find themselves locked out of power, grappling with the reality that despite years of resistance and plotting, their primary political foe has only grown stronger and more popular, leaving them a minority party. Yet, some see a sliver of hope in a novel approach — targeting not the president-elect himself, but the wealthy allies who swarm to support him. They hint at Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, expected to unveil his so-called ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ from an office within the White House complex, as the real power behind the throne. They plan to use the president-elect’s billionaire cronies as they prepare to battle over Trump’s proposed tax cuts. And they anticipate an unbeatable chance to underscore these connections when a trio of tech industry moguls — Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos — might well take center stage at Trump’s inauguration on Monday. ‘We’re approaching this administration and the 13 billionaires it has in its cabinet with the question, ‘Will you serve the American people?’ said Representative Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, the No. 2 House Democrat. ‘Will you meet us and work to lower costs, or will you simply line your own pockets?’ This strategy suggests that despite President Biden’s declining approval ratings and diminishing influence, his farewell warning about an emerging ‘oligarchy’ and the ‘tech-industrial complex’ may strike a chord in a party desperate to win back the working-class voters it lost to Trump. However, it is not without its risks, given the popularity of some of these billionaires: While Musk may be a Bond villain to some, to many, he remains Tony Stark.
Read from: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/17/us/politics/democrats-trump-oligarchy-biden.html