Click here for Robert Reich's Substack entry for April 3, entitled "Who's the Biggest Money Behind the Throne?" It's a discussion of the major billionaire contributors to Trump and other right-wing causes.
As of March 1, according to a new report from Americans for Tax Fairness, the 50 biggest-spending billionaires in American politics had already contributed over $433 million to the upcoming midterm political campaigns.
Not surprisingly, 80 percent of this haul is in support of Republican candidates or conservative issue groups.
Reich gives an overview of the five major contributors:
1. Elon Musk, $72 million, who "contributed a total of $278 million in the 2024 election cycle, mostly for getting Trump reelected. His 'investment' has paid off nicely. Musk’s net worth has grown 220 percent since Trump won in 2024";
2, Jeff Yass, $55 million: a Wall Street financier, major investor in Tik Tok, whose donations came "as Trump repeatedly delayed the sale, saving Yass’s lucrative investment";
3, Greg Briockman, $25 million, an AI tech mogul;
4. Dick Uihlein, $15.8 million, to various right-wing causes;
5. Stephen Schwarzman, $15 million, private equity mogul (Blackstone). who has built a career on predatory business practices and disregard for the public good, while leveraging his immense wealth to rig the system in his favor."
Reich lists 10 more major donors, 3 of whom favor Democratic causes and candidates. The names are Singer (D), Warren, Simon Rickets, Koch (the Koch family has spent $12 million; how the mighty have fallen), Reyes, Wynn, Winklevoss, Pritzker (D), and Eychaner (D).
Reich concludes:
Billionaires are not singularly responsible for corrupting our system of government, of course — and not all billionaires are doing this.
But as wealth continues to concentrate at the top, America finds itself in a doom loop in which giant campaign donations from the super-rich buy political decisions that make them even richer.
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