Americans Live in the 'United States of Oligarchy' With Elon Musk at the Top

Americans Live in the 'United States of Oligarchy' With Elon Musk at the Top Editor’s note: This piece is adapted from journalist Casey Michel’s new book, United States of Oligarchy, out now from Macmillan. • •Elon Musk speaks during the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos on Jan. 22, 2026. Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP via Getty Images In June, Elon Musk achieved something that no other human has ever seen: he became a trillionaire. It didn’t last long, as SpaceX shares plunged in the weeks after he took the company public. But for many watching Elon’s net worth reach an astonishing 13 figures – even briefly – his transformation into a trillionaire was an indictment of everything from American wealth inequality to a confirmation of America’s descent into oligarchy. The fact that one man could amass so much wealth and use it to not only effectively appoint a sitting president, as we saw with Donald Trump in 2024, but also to help sic far-right forces from Britain to Germany and beyond was damning, and further evidence for why rampaging wealth inequality is a threat to us all. Others, however, saw things differently. Analyst Novi Zhukovsky claimed that Musk’s ascent to trillionaire status is a “sign of our economic system’s strength.” For Musk’s backers, his meteoric rise – and the fact that he now controls more wealth than anyone ever before – is a testament to his know-how, his work ethic, and his ability to spy opportunities others simply couldn’t see. Such an ascent, of course, erases all manner of things out of Musk’s history. As I detail in my new book United States of Oligarchy, Musk also owes much of his wealth to something else: a willingness to succor autocrats and dictatorships around the world, even if it’s against American interests. This is true most especially out of China, where Musk recently served as one of Beijing’s biggest boosters, publicly praising the country’s decades-long dictatorship, linking Tesla’s fortunes to Beijing’s, and helping the regime whitewash its ongoing genocide of Uyghurs. Such pro-Musk boosterism also erases something else: how Musk has himself used his governmental connections, funding, and roles to benefit his own bottom line. In a certain sense, he is no different than many other wealthy Americans, who manipulate federal rules and regulations to enrich themselves. The only difference: given Musk’s personal net worth, he’s perhaps seen more success in turning the government into his own personal plaything – and in watching his own fortunes skyrocket as a result, especially after Donald Trump’s 2024 election. An Oligarch Unelected, a Billionaire Unleashed Musk began enjoying the fruits of Trump’s victory almost immediately. Even before Trump himself returned to the White House, Musk started outlining the contours of his new, so-called Department of Government Effi