Tech billionaires expose MAGA's "populism" con job

Tech billionaires expose MAGA's "populism" con job
MAGA "populism" was always an inch deep — Trump's billionaire-palooza proves it

By Amanda Marcotte
Senior Writer
Published January 16, 2025 6:00AM (EST)


(Salon) The entirety of Donald Trump's con artist schtick to bamboozle his followers was perfectly illustrated in one recent photograph. In it, the president-elect sits grinning maniacally next to fellow rich white guy James Quincey, CEO of Coca-Cola. Clutched in Trump's famously short fingers is an expensive, specialty-made "commemorative" Diet Coke.

Trump's Diet Coke addiction has long been used by the grifter-in-chief to sell his fans on the big lie of his career: that, beneath all the private jets and over-the-top gilded decor, he's a "regular" guy just like them. He, too, houses the sugar-free caffeinated beverages as a vague gesture towards "health" in between housing vegetable-free greasy meals of cheap hamburgers and sugary desserts. He must be an ordinary, salt-of-the-earth man! After all, he drinks a product found at every common supermarket. Never mind that Trump would never sully himself by entering a grocery store. He pays people to do that for him.

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On Tuesday, NBC News reported that tech billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg will all have prominent seats on the platform at Trump's inauguration. The symbolism is unmistakable. Those seats are usually reserved for family members, former presidents, and prominent politicians. Giving those seats to billionaires signals loudly that this is a new era of oligarchy, without even an attempt to feign allegiance to pre-Trump notions of government for and by the people. President Joe Biden was alarmed enough to make this issue the focal point of his final speech in office.

"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," Biden said in his 17-minute farewell address from the Oval Office Wednesday night.

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The trendy term for this is "vice-signaling," defined by The Bulwark's Tim Miller as "people who now gleefully portray themselves publicly as amoral or immoral in order to demonstrate some sort of strength or sophistication." Trump talking about his admiration for fictional serial killers is the most obnoxious version, but it's everywhere in MAGA. It's why Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth is so fiercely loved by GOP voters — not despite, but because of the sexual abuse allegations. It's also the primary way that rich, out-of-touch weirdoes try to appear as "just folks" to working-class Republican voters. ..............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/01/16/tech-billionaires-expose-magas-populism-con-job/