The Rich Will Always Be Our Enemy
By 
Unsurprisingly, even billionaires who have supported Democrats in the past really love Donald Trump.
Over lunch last week with a friend of mine — a major technology investor who has been an ardent Democrat — the talk quickly turned to politics. Like many businessmen, he refuses to air his views publicly to avoid drawing fire. In private, he’s more forthcoming.
“I’m willing to sacrifice small things for larger gains,” he told me, referring to President Trump. “I’m a fan of the ideas; I’m not always a fan of the execution.” For him, the “macro trumps the micro.”
The “macro” was a reference to the main factor that drove centrist businessmen toward Mr. Trump in 2024: a belief that both the spending and the regulatory tilt of the Biden administration were out of control. And they resented how Joe Biden kept bashing big companies. This animus was so intense that even the strong economic gains of the past four years couldn’t get most of them to back Kamala Harris.
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One Wall Street executive told me that Mr. Trump remains better than any of the alternatives. Another — citing Elon Musk’s government shake-up — said he likes what he sees so much, he now regrets voting for Ms. Harris.
It wasn’t just that this group resented Mr. Biden’s intrusive regulatory policies. They didn’t like diversity, equity and inclusion policies either — or anything they derisively described to me as “woke stuff.” Now executives and bankers alike (my circles tilt a bit toward Wall Street) are celebrating early signs of a reversal.
The business community is also heartened by the number of corporate executives who have been brought into the administration, in stark contrast to the Biden team, which was almost bereft of such individuals. That includes Mr. Musk, one of the most successful entrepreneurs in history (although his personal qualities, like Mr. Trump’s, are often considered distasteful). Of course, for some, like the crypto crowd, there’s a lot of money at stake.
To be clear, many of these businessmen’s move to Mr. Trump is more out of unhappiness with his predecessor than enthusiasm for him. A number reluctantly chose him after championing other candidates, such as Nikki Haley, and Mr. Trump’s continued flood of appalling actions, like his abrupt firing of several top military officers or embrace of Vladimir Putin of Russia, may well undermine approval of the administration in the business community. Among some prominent chief executives, it already has.
But at least so far, my anecdotal reporting about Mr. Trump’s enduring support is matched with broader gleanings. For one thing, despite recent lurches, the stock market notched another record just over a week ago, and is still above its level on Election Day, reflecting general investor optimism about America’s economic future. For another, the Conference Board just reported that confidence among chief executives has reached its highest level in three years.
Good. If there is a path back for the Democratic Party, it is probably based on the idea that the rich are evil. Because the rich are evil. There are no good billionaires, and I very much include Warren Buffett and George Soros in that calculation. Sure, these people might be pro-choice or whatnot, but they know that even if America outlaws abortion, they can always access it in Canada or the UK or through paying a lot to a private doctor. Some might be gay, but like Peter Thiel, they know that they can pay their way out of any problems. For far too long, Democrats have relied too much on billionaires and at the first sign of Democrats doing even the smallest things to rein in corporate greed, such as naming Lina Khan to head the FTC, the billionaire class sprints hard for Donald Trump and full fascism. That’s not surprisingly, like Trump and Musk, their goal is pre-Lochner America.
The problem of course is that Democrats have lost large swaths of working class voters too. I am by no means confident that big anti-rich rhetoric can pull those voters back to Democrats. I don’t see any better options though. Billionaires certainly aren’t the answer. But the lack of even rote class consciousness among the American working class is one way that this New Gilded Age is a lot different than the first Gilded Age. At least then, despite the power of free labor rhetoric, there were masses of people willing to take to the streets to demand change. Now, most of those masses feel totally disconnected from any mass movements for change. I’m not totally sure what you do about that except to start over as people trying to make the world better. It’s rather disheartening.