Posted on Tuesday, April 22, 2025

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by Shane Harris

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With breathless warnings about a “fascist takeover” and the imposition of an “authoritarian regime” apparently having fallen out of favor, Democrats have a new favorite word to describe President Donald Trump and the conservative movement: “oligarchy.”

Elected Democrats and the corporate media seem very convinced that this latest attack line will finally, truly, really for real this time take down Donald Trump. But describing the Trump administration as an “oligarchy” even as Democrats have spent the last two decades consolidating the support of American elites and taking billions of dollars from ultra-wealthy liberal donors is if anything even more ironic and tone-deaf than their “fascist” and “Nazi” smears.

Joe Biden cued up the oligarchy attacks in his farewell address, warning that “Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.”

Fast forward three months, and “oligarchy” talk is everywhere on the left. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders are currently in the midst of a nationwide speaking campaign titled the “Fighting Oligarchy Tour.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer recently told the hosts of “The View” that he wakes up “at three in the morning sometimes so worried about the future of this country under these oligarchs.” Senator Chris Murphy has likewise warned about a supposed “coming oligarchy,” while progressive Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) recently posted about the need to “combat oligarchy.”

But wait – aren’t these the same Democrats who have been taking huge donations from wealthy backers for years? Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders have reportedly spent more than $220,000 flying on private jets during their tour. Sanders himself, despite spending his entire political career railing against the rich, owns three homes and is worth millions.

Then there’s Schumer. The “oligarchs” he allegedly wakes up in a cold sweat over may well be friends of his, considering he took millions from PACs connected to liberal megadonor George Soros and has a longstanding close relationship with Alex Soros, the heir-apparent to the Soros activist network.

It’s easy to see where Democrats got the “oligarchy” idea from; President Trump’s partnership with Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, is indeed an unusual arrangement. But if Trump and Musk are looking to form an oligarchy, they’re not doing a very good job of it.

For starters, Musk’s role as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has a clearly stated expiration date: July 4, 2026, when DOGE’s work is scheduled to be complete. Wouldn’t an oligarch want to remain in his position of influence as long as possible?

And then there’s the nature of DOGE’s work itself. When DOGE made the U.S. Agency for International Development’s funding public, it became clear that billions of American taxpayer dollars were being funded to advance far-left causes and ultimately line the pockets of left-wing special interests run by wealthy individuals. It’s also a safe bet that at least some of that money ended up back in the coffers of Democrat politicians.

In this light, what Musk and DOGE are actually doing is exposing and dismantling oligarchy – an oligarchy created by the Democrat Party.

Democrats may have once been the party of the working class, but that is no longer the case. They are now the party of wealthy, out-of-touch elites who are far closer to “oligarchs” than the blue-collar workers who form the base of the Republican Party. In 2024, more than twice as many billionaires backed Kamala Harris as Donald Trump. A survey of millionaire investors from just before the election found a 57 percent to 43 percent split in favor of Harris.

Before Elon Musk, it was difficult to think of even one prominent billionaire who openly backed Trump and Republican candidates. As historian Victor Davis Hanson recently pointed out, the list of the top ten wealthiest individuals in America reads mostly like a Democrat Party donor list.

Nonetheless, Democrats and the corporate media have zeroed in on Musk’s political activism as evidence of “oligarchy.” But liberals don’t have a leg to stand on.

For instance, it is true that Musk spent more than $3 million on the Wisconsin Supreme Court race earlier this month. But the media has been far more reluctant to report the fact that Illinois Governor JB Pritzker – who has a net worth of $3.7 billion – and Soros spent a combined $3.5 million.

If Democrats want to have an honest conversation about wealth and power in America, they might start by looking inward. The loudest voices warning of a supposed “oligarchy” are often the very ones thriving within one – jet-setting across the country, raking in donations from billionaires, and operating at the heart of an elite ecosystem that props them up.

It’s not “fighting oligarchy” when you’re funded by it. In the end, Americans aren’t fooled by buzzwords or branding campaigns. They can see who is truly challenging entrenched power and who is simply repackaging it in populist rhetoric.

Shane Harris is the Editor-in-Chief of AMAC Newsline. You can follow him on X @shaneharris513.