AMERICAN BROLIGARCHY

As Elon Musk, the world's richest person and President Donald Trump's top campaign donor, rampages through the federal government, shutting down agencies and firing workers seemingly without any regard for his own conflicts of interest, the danger of concentrated private interests capturing our political system has never been more apparent.

- LAWRENCE NORDEN AND DANIEL I. WEINER

Elon Musk and President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Feb. 11

How did we get to the point of having a tech billionaire campaign donor openly running huge parts of the federal government? As a result of Supreme Court decisions, most notably the notorious 2010 Citizens United, the wealthiest donors can play a more direct role in funding and running political campaigns than we have seen since the Gilded Age. In 2024, just 10 individual donors were able to supply nearly half of the money raised to support Trump's candidacy. Musk spent at least $288 million, and his PAC took on core functions of the campaign, such as door-to-door canvassing and get-out-the-vote efforts. He also used ownership of X (formerly Twitter) to boost Trump. Before Citizens United none of this would have been legal.