By James McCabe
“We’re done catering to Wall Street; we’ll commit to the working man”. JD Vance uttered these words in his first speech as Trump’s vice-presidential candidate in July 2024. Fast forward six months, as Vance’s motorcade pulled up to the 10,000 square foot home of his billionaire mentor Peter Thiel. Thiel was hosting a party to celebrate the inauguration of Trump in his Washington, D.C. mansion. Casino mogul Miriam Adelson, one of the world’s richest people, rubbed shoulders with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg at this black tie event where gift bags containing small bottles of Moët champagne and red MAGA hats were given to guests.
A couple of days later, the inauguration ceremony took place, where every major tech oligarch stood on stage with Trump in a public display of their loyalty to the President. The CEOs of Amazon, Google, Apple, Facebook and X sat very close to the President in seats that are traditionally reserved for family and past presidents. Far from committing to ‘the working man’, Trump’s administration consists of the wealthiest cabinet members and White House appointees in history.
They include Linda McMahon, the former wrestling executive of WWE, whose husband Vince McMahon owns at least $3 billion. The commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, is also a billionaire. As is Jared Isaacman, who Trump has nominated to head NASA. And who could forget Elon Musk, the world’srfrrffwealthiest person, who is leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in its war on public sector workers and social services?
Working-class populism?
To cultivate popular appeal, Vice President Vance and MAGA movement stalwart Steve Bannon often refer to their parents’ and grandparents’ working-class heritage. However, the dominant life experiences of both Vance and Bannon are far from those of the working class. Bannon spent years on Wall Street as an investment banker for Goldman Sachs. Vance was a suburban kid who studied law at Yale before moving to San Francisco to work as a venture capitalist under the tutelage of Peter Thiel. But their social backgrounds aren’t the point. The point is that the policies they promote result in the enrichment of elites at the expense of working people.
The first Trump administration saw historic tax cuts for the super wealthy and big business, and now Trump wants even more corporate tax cuts. The administration also wants Congress to commit to cutting $880 billion in social spending over ten years, which can’t be done without enormous attacks on healthcare services, disability payments and nursing home care. Such cuts will decimate the lives of working-class and poor Americans. All the while, the MAGA movement scapegoats migrants and trans people for society’s problems as it indulges big business and facilitates rampant profiteering.
Big Tech turns right
Much has been made of the transformation of Silicon Valley from a bastion of liberalism to the home of the pro-MAGA tech bros. It’s sometimes posed as if Musk, Zuckerberg and co. were naturally liberal elites who became radicalised, shifting dramatically to the right under the influence of a grassroots backlash from below against feminism and anti-racism. It’s worth noting that tech companies are notoriously anti-union and fear the threat of their workforces getting organised to improve their working conditions. Movements such as #metoo and Black Lives Matter led to workers in these companies demanding more diversity, inclusivity and codes of conduct. When the momentum behind these movements subsided, the tech CEOs could regain more control by leaning into the right-wing backlash – as shown in Zuckerberg’s aspiration for a more “masculine energy” in the workplace.
Musk and Thiel’s formative experiences were shaped as wealthy white boys in apartheid South Africa. Their fathers profited from the super-exploitative, racist emerald and uranium mining industries. So both were predisposed towards the white-supremacist prejudices of the MAGA movement. In 1996, Thiel co-authored The Diversity Myth along with fellow white South African tech mogul David Sachs.
The Diversity Myth opined the supposed dangers of feminism, multiculturalism and “political correctness” (the precursor to so-called “wokism”). Thiel’s anti-social, reactionary politics have aligned seamlessly with his role as the CEO of AI weapons company, Palantir, whose products have been widely used by the Israeli military in the genocide in Palestine. Big Tech also clearly benefits from the shift against environmentalism as they thirst for more power plants to fuel their data centres.
A shift has taken place. Previous governments tried to hide that they were doing the bidding of big business, whereas now the billionaires are flaunting their ability to pull the strings of politicians. But make no mistake, an organised movement of workers and the oppressed could fatally challenge their arrogance and overthrow their rule and that of their capitalist system.
