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Comment by username223 | Hacker News Reader

> Usually this comes towards the end of a dictatorship.

It doesn't seem that way to me, e.g. Putin arrested Khodorkovsky (the richest man in Russia) in 2003. The way I see it, the politician needs the oligarch's money to gain political power, but then he has actual state power, including guns and the judicial system. At that point the oligarch has no purpose -- after all, the politician can just make new ones -- so it makes sense to cast him out or destroy him.

Trump could bankrupt SpaceX with the stroke of a pen and bleed Tesla dry by revoking EV credits. He could even try to revoke Musk's citizenship over (real or fake) issues with his immigration status in the past. If Elon thought he was buying the presidency in exchange for favors, he wasn't thinking things through.

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> If Elon thought he was buying the presidency in exchange for favors, he wasn't thinking things through.

This is the funniest part to me, in the context of THIS president. The guy that demands fully loyalty but gives none?

I can't imagine being the richest guy in the world, and embarrassing myself to such a degree all for.. what? He paid maybe $300M to help elect the guy, wore all the stupid hates, lavished orange man with praise.. and for what. What was ever the upside? The possible downside was obviously asymmetric to any clear eyed viewer.

And so that asymmetric downside now begins.

This crop of billionaires was created from a time when capital was ascendant and state power was on the decline. I think as a result they’ve come to believe that the state is mostly there for their benefit especially during Republican administrations.

I think it's also a mark of the self delusion some of these "Great Men" tend to have, before you even get into the surrounding yes-men & ketamine.

Probably some sort of "well I am worth $400M, but if I can get that to $2M, I can do my Mars space colony with enough room for my harem, for sure".

vs "Gee I have more money than one can ever spend and remain mortal.. I could go enjoy my life like Bezos before it all evaporates..."

The Bezod who sat next to him at the inauguration?

Sure they all attended

But few have tied themselves as explicitly to the man as musk. Funded. Wore the dumb hats. Went on campaign trail.

It was like a deep romance. You don’t walk away from that stench.

Meanwhile Bezos has been on his yacht in the Mediterranean lol

Haven't they ever seen House of Cards?

Not that both the Republicans and Democrats are very pro large business. Remember Harris raised at least _twice_ as much money from billionaires than Trump.

They're just pro different big businesses, largely based on their demographics.

Personally I'm still annoyed that Obama's administration had the DOE take over servicing federal student loans to "protect students" only for them to somehow be sold to a private company based in Chicago from what I can tell.

Surely this is untrue?

Isn't it the opposite? What are you basing this on?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/01/billionaires...

https://americansfortaxfairness.org/billionaires-buying-elec...

Billionaire spending heavily favored Republicans. Over two-thirds (70%) of billionaire-family contributions went in support of GOP candidates and conservative causes. Less than a quarter (23%) backed Democratic hopefuls and progressive causes. (The remainder went to committees without a clear partisan or ideological identity.

I hadn't looked for a while, but Harris was out raising and out spending Trump substantially when I'd last read up on it. Much of that seemed to come primarily from big donors.

Sure the more of the top richest people may have donated more to Trump or Republicans, but Harris raised much more overall.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2024/11/04/trump-v...

Seems like they both raised about the same from their top 20 largest donors:

> The Harris campaign received significantly more funding than Trump's, outspending the Republican advertising machine by more than 70 percent in the final stretch of the election.

> According to data from Open Secrets, Harris received almost $400 million from her 20 largest backers. Trump received over half a billion dollars from his top 20, which included over $100 million from SpaceX, Elon Musk's rocket company.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2024/11/04/trump-v...

My take of that is that Trump raised a bit more from concentrated donations from the richest billionaires, but Harris overall raised more from larger numbers of billionaires and millionaires.

Everyone who consorts with Trump ends up covered in shit.

It was weird to see all those billionaire tech bros lining up to kiss his arse. What is the point of spending all that effort to be super rich and powerful if it means you have to grovel to a terrible human being like Trump? Does not compute.

"This time WE will be in control." is probably what they were thinking.

Didn't Musk dismantle the federal agencies that were investigating and suing his companies?

Well... Sure, he got Starlink approved for rural broadband funding and ended some NTSB investigations into Tesla's "suicide mode." But those things can be reversed with a quickness if he's no longer on Trump's side.

He also wrecked a lot more of the federal government that doesn't affect him one way or the other, and may have harvested a ton of data for his AI company. We'll see if anything comes of that.

maybe he wanted a ticket to the island, maybe he got it

> He could even try to revoke Musk's citizenship

At the very least, an arrest by ICE is a real possibility. His brother has admitted on camera that they were illegal at one point, and there is now a lot of precedent for "arrest first - ask questions later" even if you're a natural born citizen.

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