X Æ A-Xii (Little X) in the Oval Office whispering something to Felon47
By Audun Lysbakken, Member of Parliament, Norwegian politician former leader of Socialist Left Party,
first published in Klassekampen February 13. 2025
Economic inequality is not just about the distribution of money. It is about the distribution of power.
The new oligarchy is a true child of neoliberalism. Decades of market ideology have led to widespread political acceptance of the extreme concentration of wealth. This mindset has also contributed to the cultivation of the egos of those at the top of capitalism, who are constantly told that they are the “creators of value.” The path from such liberalism to sprouting fascism can be short.
Many liberal critics of Trump cannot hide their contempt for the people at the core of his movement, the supposedly vulgar and ignorant masses with Maga caps on their heads. The traditional Marxist understanding of fascism was the exact opposite, fascist dictatorship and violence were seen as the bourgeoisie’s last bastion in the fight against the labor movement. Both analyses are too simple to describe today’s far right. Trump and his like-minded people are being lifted up by unrest in broad layers of the people, fueled by both economic problems and the intense culture war of our time. At the same time, the more resolute second edition of the Trump regime is impossible to understand without emphasizing that a strong faction of the economic elite has now allied itself with the far right. This applies not only to the much-discussed tech oligarchs, with Elon Musk at the forefront. There are also many in the fossil fuel industry and in banking and finance who have invested heavily in the new president.
The common interest between the authoritarian right and some of the world’s richest men is particularly about the internet and energy. Limitations on the right to hate and incite online are also limitations on the right of tech giants to make money as they please. The left’s willingness to regulate content on social media has in recent years been complemented by a growing eagerness to do something about monopoly power. Both aspects scare Silicon Valley. Also, the opposition to any environmental measure, from energy conversion to plastic straws, has united the maga movement and parts of big business. “Drill, baby, drill” is a gigantic bet that the United States can win by remaining a bastion for the production and consumption of fossil energy instead of competing to be first in the race for new green solutions. The oil and gas companies are happy, while several of the largest banks on Wall Street are enthusiastically abandoning their commitments to contribute to the energy transition and net zero emissions. The tech industry also has an enormous need for cheap and quickly available energy. This is how the math works out for all the billionaires who stood in the front row during Trump’s inauguration ceremony.
Elon Musk’s downsizing and takeover of key systems in several departments is a spectacular power grab, but it is being sold on false premises. The real goal of the mutilation of the federal bureaucracy is not efficiency and lower spending, but to greatly expand the power of the president and his friends. Civil servants who are more loyal to the law than to the new regime are to be removed. Economist and Trump critic Paul Krugman calls it a “self-coup” and believes that everything Trump/Musk does must be understood in this perspective. Self-coup occurs when a legitimately elected leader attempts to take full control by removing restrictions on his own use of power.
In the debate about inequality here at home in Norway, we often hear that the left is too concerned with limiting wealth, and that poverty is the only problem. This overlooks the fact that wealth is also power. Ever-increasing differences end in oligarchy, and when the oligarchs want to reshape society in their image, the far right is a natural tool. This is what Elon Musk teach us: Extreme wealth makes for extreme politics.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently met tech billionaire Elon Musk and his family during his two-day visit to the United States. PM Modi later expressed his gratitude for meeting Musk, his business partner Shivon Zilis, and their three children—X Æ A-Xii (Little X), Azure, and Strider—on the microblogging site X.
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