The privatization of political power in the United States

Jorge Costa Oliveira

The significant influence that major corporations exert on American politics is well known, from funding extremely expensive electoral campaigns to spending fortunes on lobbying to push through legislation that favors their interests. Examples of this include the influence of the pharmaceutical industry on the approval of health laws and the influence of the gun lobby on the [weak] gun control policy in the US.

Trump has gone far beyond the traditional “proximity” between big business and political leadership, visible in the sheer number of billionaires on his team. The elimination of the Department of Education and the appointment of business executives with clear conflicts of interest to key economic and financial oversight roles – exemplified by Elon Musk heading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), where he promised to cut 2 trillion dollars in public spending but ended up trimming only 1 to 7 billion, while DOGE was used to eliminate or restrict the operations of several federal agencies (USAID, FAA, NASA, NHTSA, USDA, CFPB) supervising major incentive programs involving Musk’s own companies – reveal a clear intention to bend the machinery of the state to private interests.

The expansion of the cryptocurrency sector, catalyzed by the establishment of a U.S. government “strategic Bitcoin reserve and digital asset stockpile” and by crypto investments from the Trump Organization, increases the amount of private money relative to the dollar. The same is happening with the rapid proliferation of stablecoins.

Despite the rest of the American economy slowing down, the technological sector has been growing very rapidly – in particular in the AI field – absorbing ever more capital and now representing roughly 40% of U.S. stock market capitalization. This concentration of capital goes hand in hand with these companies and their main shareholders’ control of social networks and media.

The privatization of power is also evident in the use of presidential pardons granted to white-collar criminals such as Changpeng Zhao, a billionaire with business ties to the Trump family in corporate crypto ventures, as well as many others who helped fill Trump’s electoral war chests.

The paltry amount of public spending actually cut by DOGE, the legalization and expansion of the government’s own use of cryptocurrencies, the influence of professional lobbyists such as Trump’s chief of staff and Attorney General Pam Bondi, and the political instrumentalization of the Department of Justice and the FBI show how deeply institutional safeguards have been compromised. At the same time, the growing concentration of financial and media power in the hands of techno-oligarchs and the appointment of business figures with conflicts of interest to key economic policy positions and oversight agencies further dismantle traditional boundaries meant to protect the public interest.

All of this – compounded by the effective absence of real checks & balances (a result of the Republican majority’s subservience in Congress and a loyal Supreme Court) – makes clear that the goal is to concentrate power in a president who governs through the permanent abuse of legislation meant for wartime or emergency situations. The outcome is the subordination of public interest to powerful private interests, driving a gradual privatization of America’s political power.

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