In capitalist society, Karl Marx said, an individual’s power is equal to the power of their money.
Judging by the latest calculations of billionaire spending in the 2024 U.S. elections, it’s clear that most of the capitalist class is using its money power to try to re-install Donald Trump in the White House and put MAGA Republicans in charge of Congress.
The world’s richest man – Elon Musk – has been in the media spotlight because of the $133 million out of his $244 billion Space X-Tesla-Twitter/X fortune that he’s sunk into the effort to elect Trump. The truth is, though, he’s not even the biggest spender.
Sands casino magnate Miriam Adelson, widow of Sheldon Adelson, has shelled out a similar amount, almost $134 million. And the award for biggest Trump donor goes to Timothy Mellon, the Gulf Oil trust fund heir, who has ponied up $172 million.
According to a report released by Americans for Tax Fairness, $1.9 billion has been collectively spent by just 150 of the country’s richest families on the election as of late October – shattering all previous records of billionaire spending. That doesn’t even account for the hordes of cash they’ve dumped into the race during this last crucial week.
Once it’s all added up, the total will likely soar past $2 billion. And that’s just the money we know about – billions more are flowing through “dark money” super PACs – in-kind donations that we will never be able to count.
The billionaire mega-donors hail from a rogues gallery of some of the most anti-worker corporations, predatory hedge funds, and financial powerhouses in the United States: Susquehanna Group, Koch Industries, Blackstone, Walmart, TD Ameritrade, Wynn Resorts, Home Depot, Energy Transfer Partners, Sequoia Capital, Johnson & Johnson, and more.
As might be expected, the presidential contest between Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris has been the target of the largest tranches of money. Almost $600 million has been forked over by billionaires for this race alone, either through direct contributions to the two candidates’ fundraising committees or via organizations aligned with them.
And by a 3 to 1 margin, the billionaires have put their money power behind Trump. More than 75% of their political contributions have gone into his campaign – over $450 million.
“Billionaire campaign spending on this scale drowns out the voices and concerns of ordinary Americans. It is one of the most obvious and disturbing consequences of the growth of billionaire fortunes, as well as being a prime indicator that the system regulating campaign finance has collapsed,” David Kass, the ATF’s executive director, said when releasing the data last week.
It’s not hard to understand why the billionaires are betting on Trump. They invested in him last time and were rewarded with massive tax cuts for themselves and the corporations they own. They remember the progress report he gave them in Mar-a-Lago back in December 2017 after the passage of his first big tax overhaul: “You all just got a lot richer.”
If he wins this time, Trump has promised more of the same – and on an even bigger scale.
He’ll not only extend and make permanent the tax cuts from his first term; he and the ideologues behind his Project 2025 have another $9.75 trillion in giveaways for the rich planned for the years ahead. Funneling all that money to those at the top will mean major cuts to Social Security, Medicare, health care, public education, and all the things that matter to the rest of us.
This financial assault will be paired with a full-scale offensive against workers and the organized labor movement. The billionaires backing Trump want to destroy the National Labor Relations Act, cripple our unions, and eliminate its best leaders. They hope to trash the laws and rules that regulate wages, overtime hours and pay, workplace safety, and First Amendment rights on the job.
As proof of their intentions, we need only recall Trump demanding UAW President Shawn Fain, who spearheaded the successful “Stand-Up Strike” against the Big Three automakers, be “fired immediately.” Or remember the Republican nominee’s praise of companies that fire workers who go on strike.
All of this comes on top of the long list of attacks Trump and MAGA have planned against different sectors of our working class as part of their divide-and-conquer strategy: women and reproductive health, LGBTQ people (especially trans persons), immigrants and refugees, the civil rights of people of color, and more.
In a society where money is power, it can feel like the influence of the billionaires is insurmountable. But turning again to Marx, we are reminded that there is a power that’s greater than money: the power of organization. Political power, capitalism’s chief critic said, is simply organized class power.
The billionaires have organized as a class and placed their bet on Trump. But Marx bet that working people have the ability and the tools to get themselves organized, too, and to create a different kind of society, one where all of us have the freedom to develop our capacities and work together to satisfy our social needs.
The 2024 election is a major battle in the class struggle in our country.
The most reactionary and far-right sectors of the capitalist class have teamed up to back a wannabe dictator who’s managed to assemble a mass movement of contradictory forces behind him – outright racists and misogynists along with millions of disaffected and confused members of the working class. It’s the classic formula for fascism.
Trump may have the entrenched power of accumulated capital behind him, but our side has its own power: unity. Our votes, when we cast them collectively and strategically to block the road to fascism, can beat the billionaires.
As Communist Party USA Co-Chair Joe Sims summarized the situation earlier this summer: “On the one side, there’s the ruling class forces of white supremacy and MAGA pulling the country apart. On the other, there’s the working-class forces of democracy pulling the country together.”
Our votes can win this battle and open the path for the fights still to come: to tax the rich and fund people’s needs, to win health care and education for all, to reverse institutional racism and sexism, to tear down the military-industrial complex and achieve a foreign policy committed to peace and justice.
The defeat of Trump will be a step forward, but the struggle to rein in the ruling class will continue. The billionaires backing MAGA won’t disappear when Trump himself fades from the scene; they’ll regroup and start plotting their next offensive.
Plus, we can’t forget that while the Democratic Party may not always be the favored vehicle of the worst elements of the capitalist class, it was still the beneficiary of 25% of billionaire family contributions in this election, and its leaders continue to back some of the most egregious policies of U.S. imperialism, chief among them the genocide in Gaza.
Growing the consciousness and organization of the working class means also growing its level of political independence, within the Democratic apparatus and especially outside it.
Those are the tasks ahead once Trump and fascism are in the rear-view mirror. Fulfilling them will require the class-conscious among our working class to constantly point out the capitalist roots of the crises our people face and the need for socialist solutions.
But first, we have to win on Election Day, Nov. 5.
So, get organized, and go vote. Take family, friends, and co-workers with you. Make calls, knock on doors, and give others a ride to the polls. Then, stay mobilized because we’ll have a lot of work to do, no matter what happens.
As with all news analysis and op-ed articles published by People’s World, this article reflects the views of its author.
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