Conversation

Never mind that 23 Nobel Prize–winning economists signed a letter last month affirming that Trump’s economic policies will be a catastrophe for the economy
—something you don’t have to be a Nobel laureate to understand.

Let go of any illusions you still harbor that the prosperity of the world’s richest people depends on a thriving economy.

If anything, the oligarchs stand to do better when the economy (and the country) go to hell.

The oligarchs won.

When the markets closed November 6
—the day Donald Trump was declared winner of the presidential election
—the combined wealth of the world’s 10 richest people,
nine of whom live in the United States,
had surged by a combined $63.5 billion.

It was, Bloomberg reported, the top 10’s biggest one-day gain in net worth since Bloomberg started tracking this multibillionaire cohort in 2012.

The single richest billionaire, and the most toxic, is Elon Musk.

When Musk woke up on the morning of November 6, he was worth $263.8 billion. -- When he went to bed that night he was worth $290.3 billion.

This one-day gain in his net worth exceeded 10 percent.

Musk spent $130 million to reelect Trump and got back $26.5 billion;

This may be the most profitable single investment of his storied career.

And the financial returns are only beginning.

Even if Musk never assumes his promised role as efficiency czar
—the acronym for the proposed Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE, was once a word to describe Venetian monarchs
—Musk is well positioned to prosper under Trump.

He can, reports Lora Kolodny on CNBC, “look forward to regulators and intelligence agencies winding down some or all of the 19 known ongoing federal investigations and lawsuits against Tesla, SpaceX and X, formerly known as Twitter.”
https://newrepublic.com/article/188156/liberals-dump-musk-leave-twitter