The Billionaires March On Washington

They’ve been coaxed out of their mansions and off their yachts by President Trump to make America great again—for the very, very rich.

- Nina Burleigh

MR. MONOPOLY, that mustachioed fat cat, was about as close as most Americans got to a New York City billionaire until candidate Donald Trump started flying his jet to their villages last year. Now they are practically an everyday sight, because President Trump has coaxed a pack of them out of their penthouses and private jets to either join his Cabinet or sit on his councils and advisory boards. Trump voters know they’ve had a government for billionaires—that’s one reason they’re so mad—but to have one by billionaires means the Mighty Oz is now setting the nation’s agenda, and there is no curtain.

So what can Trump give to these men who have everything? And what can they do for him, and to America? The answer may be found in a line from the Italian movie The Leopard, about the decaying Sicilian aristocracy: “Everything must change so that everything can remain the same.” The best gift Trump can give his rich friends is to appear to be shaking up the system while leaving their myriad tactics for amassing capital unaffected. Less than three months into his presidency, Trump is well into that agenda—quietly deregulating the financial industry, stripping Barack Obama’s climate change rules from fossil fuel producers and promising to lower taxes on the very rich.