Jonathan Taplin on our new Trumpian oligarchy
"It’s just people who are craven cowards bowing down and kissing the ring."
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As you’ve probably noticed by now, it’s discount season on big tech billionaires. They’re desperately currying favor with President-elect Trump by throwing money at him — including bankrolling his inauguration.
Elon Musk has obviously been MAGA-pilled for a few years and is firmly established (for now) as Trump’s wealthiest and perhaps most influential adviser. But Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos have also opened their ample pocketbooks to make clear they’re much more friendly to Trump than they were during his first term.

Considering the role Musk and Zuckerberg play in running social media platforms that shape the views of voters — and how much Trump benefitted from Musk essentially turning X into an arm of the Trump campaign ahead of the 2024 election — watching the most powerful players in big tech line up behind Trump is disconcerting, to say the least. We seem to be witnessing the birth of a new form of American oligarchy.
On Wednesday, President Biden used his farewell address to sound the alarm about this development, highlighting the “dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra-wealthy people and the dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left unchecked.” (Watch below.)
“Today, an oligarchy is taking shape,” Biden said. “Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation, enabling the abuse of power ... the truth is smothered by lies."
The ultra-wealthy sucking up to powerful politicians obviously isn’t new, but this particular constellation of billionaires forming around a president who has already showed us he’s the most corrupt in the country’s history takes things to a different level. And as Trump himself has acknowledged, Zuckerberg and company aren’t singing a new tune because of the strength of their convictions — his threats succeeded in bringing them to heel.

To get some expert insight into the rise of the Trumpian oligarchy, we connected with the legendary Jonathan Taplin. Taplin is a writer, film producer, and scholar who’s been observing these types of men for decades, including in his acclaimed 2023 book, “The End of Reality: How Four Billionaires are Selling a Fantasy Future of the Metaverse, Mars, and Crypto.”
In our conversation, Taplin made a case that the current mask-off moment for big tech executives is a result of how the 2024 election turned out, not necessarily a reflection of American culture moving to the right.
“Zuckerberg is a fool to say this is a cultural shift. Bullshit. It isn’t,” he said. “It’s just people who are craven cowards bowing down and kissing the ring.”
Taplin’s career began in the 1960s, when he managed and traveled with artists such as Bob Dylan (you might’ve heard of him) and Janis Joplin. He said the reactionary moment we’re living through reminds him of the rise of Nixon, which if nothing else produced some great art.
“I’m old enough to have been working for Bob Dylan and The Band in 1968 when both Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy were killed,” he said. “From the point of view of music or the point of view of movies, it was one of the greatest times in the history of our culture.”
“Today, there is no counterculture, but there will be. I promise you. It won’t be, necessarily, people marching in the streets against Trump. It will just be people expressing different points of view culturally.”
Taplin’s full conversation with Public Notice contributor Thor Benson, lightly edited for length and clarity, follows.
Thor Benson
A lot of the super rich tech guys — Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos — seem to be getting behind Trump, or at least trying not to upset him. Why?
Jonathan Taplin
Fear. Just craven lack of courage. Zuckerberg still has an open antitrust lawsuit, which he would like to close. Musk has several problems with the SEC, with the NHTSA. He’s trying to get approval for a taxi fleet. It’s just classic crony capitalism.
It has existed, unfortunately, as long as this republic has, and at times crony capitalism has been really powerful. Remember, J.P. Morgan personally bailed out the United States banks in 1907. But I have never seen a businessman with as much power as Musk has.
Thor Benson
To what extent do you think Zuckerberg sincerely became red pilled? Does his transformation come across as sincere to you or is this just a rich guy being a rich guy?
Jonathan Taplin