The Powers That Be:
Trump, Vance, Musk, Bessent and the Oligarchic Deep State in Plain Sight

Tracy Turner

The Deep State is the Kleptarchs hiding in plain sight.

The Deep State Is Not a Theory—It is an Open Secret Prior Article: Selective Conscience of the West

The so-called 'Deep State' is often dismissed as a fringe conspiracy theory, but the truth is more unsettling and more visible than we realize. It is not a shadowy group plotting in secret but the overt machinery of oligarchic rule, operating in the open under the guise of lawful authority. The real 'Powers That Be' are not necessarily hidden behind the curtain pulling strings; they are the ones in front of the cameras, cashing the checks, setting policy, and ensuring wealth and power remain in the hands of an elite minority. Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, Elon Musk, and Scott Bessent are all key players in this regime—men who pretend to be populist disruptors or free-market heroes but who, in reality, labor to advance, shield, and prop up the oligarchic regime that has dominated for centuries.

Instead of dismantling the oligarchy, these men—Musk, Trump, Vance, and Bessent—are tools of its perpetuation. They don't aim to overturn the status quo; they replicate it. Their actions, and those of their political, financial, and corporate enablers, serve as a stark reminder that the Deep State is not a secret conspiracy but an overt and entrenched reality—a system where capitalism and state power have merged into an oligarchic ruling elite. It's up to us, the public, to challenge and change this system.

Trump, the purported "outsider," stocked his administration with Goldman Sachs veterans and implemented tax cuts that benefited the wealthiest 1% disproportionately (Saez & Zucman, 2019).

Vance, the Ohio populist, owes his political career to the largesse of billionaire Peter Thiel, who funded his Senate campaign (Vogel, 2022), and Musk's business empire relies on government subsidies, NASA contracts, and regulatory capture (Yaffe-Bellany, 2023). Bessent, the former hedge fund manager and lieutenant to George Soros wields influence because of his ties to the Federal Reserve and Treasury (Tooze, 2021). These are not rogue agents battling the establishment; they are the establishment, essential cogs in the machine that perpetuates the oligarchy's hold on power. We must demand transparency and accountability from these figures.

The so-called "Deep State" is not a shadowy conspiracy but the visible machinery of oligarchic continuity, where each new generation of power brokers inherits and expands the systems of wealth extraction perfected by their predecessors. Trump, Musk, Vance, and Bessent represent the latest iteration of this elite continuum - just as George W. Bush funneled billions to Halliburton and oil titans through the Iraq War, and Obama's healthcare reforms became a corporate bonanza for insurers, these new players have simply updated the playbook. Their rhetoric of disruption and reform masks the same old patterns: tax cuts for oligarchs, privatization of public resources, and the fusion of corporate and state power.

Like Bush's oil cronies who profited from fabricated wars, today's oligarchs exploit manufactured crises - whether Musk's government-subsidized "green revolution," Vance's defense-tech empire built on Pentagon contracts, or Bessent's Fed-connected hedge fund gambling with economic policy. The Affordable Care Act's transfer of $50 billion annually to private insurers finds its parallel in Trump's $2 trillion corporate tax cut or Biden's $53 billion semiconductor giveaway. The names and sectors change, but the wealth extraction mechanism remains identical: public money flows upward while austerity crushes the vulnerable.

This isn't conspiracy - it's the logical evolution of capitalism when left unchecked by democracy. From Bush's oil wars to Obama's insurer windfalls to Trump's Wall Street cabinet to Musk's subsidy empire, we see the same faces with different masks. The "swamp" was never drained; it simply welcomed new species of corporate predators. When Vance takes Thiel's Silicon Valley money while posing as a populist, or Bessent trades on Treasury connections like a Goldman Sachs alumnus, they're not breaking the system - they're playing its most lucrative game.

The Oligarchic Handshake: How Trump, Vance, Musk, and Bessent Pander to the Elite

Donald Trump: The Populist Face of Plutocracy

Donald Trump's presidency was a master class in utilizing populist rhetoric as a path to oligarchic enrichment. His 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which lowered the corporate tax rate to 21% from 35%, handed 83% of the benefits to the top 1% by 2027 (Tax Policy Center, 2017). This policy was marketed as a middle-class windfall, but it further enriched the oligarchs' wealth. Trump's policies were a direct handout to the ultra-rich, with corporations and wealthy individuals like himself being the prime beneficiaries.

Trump's deregulation frenzy also worked to the benefit of the oligarchs. The deregulation of the financial sector allowed big banks to resume risky trading (Eavis, 2018), while fossil fuel companies were given additional space to exploit public land and resources (Friedman, 2020). Trump's White House was also a Goldman Sachs reunion, with high-ranking positions filled by former executives, such as Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, former Goldman President Gary Cohn as chief economic adviser, and Jay Clayton, a Wall Street lawyer, to head the SEC. Far from draining the swamp, Trump relocated it to Pennsylvania Avenue and made it pretty clear that his populist language had been a smokescreen all along for introducing policies to protect the interests of the wealthy.

J.D. Vance: Thiel's Protege and the Venture Capitalist Takeover

J.D. Vance, the author of Hillbilly Elegy, has rebranded himself as a champion of the working class. However, his ascent to power was made possible by the same Silicon Valley oligarchs he claims to oppose. His Senate campaign was generously funded by billionaire PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, who profits from surveillance technology (Palantir) and defense contracts (Vogel, 2022). Vance's policies, such as his support for corporate tax cuts and his opposition to labor unions, reveal that he is a mouthpiece for Silicon Valley's interests, not Ohio's working class.

Vance's venture capital firm, Narya, focuses on defense tech and AI—areas that receive high levels of subsidization from the Pentagon (Mac, 2023). He supports tax cuts for corporations and opposes labor unions, revealing that he is representative of Silicon Valley elites' interests, not Ohio's working class. Vance does not represent America's forgotten middle class; he represents the Silicon Valley-Industrial Complex, where the tech oligarchs and defense contractors converge to promote their power and wealth under the guise of "innovation."

Elon Musk: Welfare King of the Tech Oligarchy

Elon Musk's business empire, which includes Tesla, SpaceX, and SolarCity, is a prime example of corporate welfare. Musk has built wealth by heavily relying on government subsidies, contracts, and regulatory favoritism. Tesla alone has received over $7 billion in government subsidies (Los Angeles Times, 2023), and SpaceX has received $5.6 billion from NASA contracts alone (GAO, 2022). This reliance on government support is often overlooked when discussing Musk's success, yet it is a key factor in his position among the oligarchic elite.

Musk's wealth has not been built through innovation alone and strategic appeasement with state authority. His business empires depend on state-backed monopoly power, with policies designed to benefit tech giants like Tesla and SpaceX at the expense of smaller players and the public. Furthermore, Musk's recent efforts at lobbying in opposition to unionization and workers' protection (Scheiber, 2023) show that his "free-market" philosophy is a front for a business model premised on state-backed monopolies and worker exploitation.

Musk's acquisition of Twitter, now rebranded as X, exposed his reliance on foreign investment from Saudi Arabian and Qatari sovereign wealth funds, nations with questionable human rights records (Hagey & Horwitz, 2023). Musk's "free speech" crusade was a power grab and a further attempt to consolidate his control over the narrative in the digital age. Far from a free speech champion, Musk uses his platform to suppress dissent and further the interests of his oligarchic benefactors.

Scott Bessent: The Shadow Banker Pulling Washington's Strings

Scott Bessent, a former Soros Fund Management executive, now runs Key Square Group, a hedge fund that profits from monetary and fiscal policy changes. Bessent's connection to the Federal Reserve and Treasury gives him unparalleled influence on economic decisions. His connection to figures like Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen—who spent years at the Federal Reserve—illustrates how finance elites dictate monetary policy while evading public accountability (Tooze, 2021).

Bessent's firm makes its money on macro bets, effectively betting on interest rate movements his network helps to generate. This wealth transfer machine is not free-market capitalism; it is a rigged game where those at the top have the power to fix the game in their favor. Bessent's influence in Washington provides a fine example of how the financial sector uses its connections to control policy outcomes, maintaining the oligarchic elite at the top of the financial pyramid.

The Deep State Unmasked: AIPAC, NSA, DHS, and the Permanent Spy Bureaucracy

The so-called "Deep State" is not a vague conspiracy theory—it is the intersection of corporate and intelligence power, a means of guaranteeing the continuation of rule by the wealthy and powerful. The institutions that make up this deep state—e.g., AIPAC, the NSA, the CIA, and DHS—do not protect the public interest; they protect the interests of the oligarchic elite.

• AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) plays a key role in mobilizing bipartisan support for policies that benefit defense contractors and technology firms, particularly those specializing in surveillance and military technologies (Mearsheimer & Walt, 2007).
• The NSA and CIA, under the guise of national security, are privatized intelligence agencies that subcontract data collection and surveillance to corporations like Palantir and Amazon, which garner massive profits from government contracts (Risen, 2020).
• DHS, under Biden as well as Trump, has funneled billions of dollars into militarized police forces and border tech firms such as Anduril that profit from surveillance and control (Speri, 2023).

These agencies are not safeguarding democracy—they are safeguarding the interests of the corporate and political elites who pull the strings behind the scenes. They are tools of surveillance, repression, and control, ensuring the oligarchs' supremacy is never challenged.

Orwellian Doublespeak: How "Health Care," "Free Speech," and "Democracy" Obscure Oligarchic Plunder

The oligarchic elites have refined the practice of doublespeak to mask the underlying reality of their wealth extraction schemes. For example, Obama's Affordable Care Act was billed to expand healthcare coverage but poured $50 billion annually into the coffers of private insurers while still excluding millions of Americans from coverage (Woolhandler & Himmelstein, 2017). "Health" was a euphemism for corporate profit extraction.

Trump's "Drain the Swamp" rhetoric was a con. His tax cuts, costing $2 trillion in increased national debt, benefited the wealthy disproportionately, while austerity measures devastated vital social programs like Social Security and Medicare (CRFB, 2019).

Musk's "free speech absolutism" was a bid to further his dominance of digital discourse, and Biden's "Build Back Better" campaign concealed a corporate giveaway, such as $53 billion to semiconductor giants like Intel (New York Times, 2022). Meanwhile, efforts at student loan forgiveness were sabotaged by legal loopholes.

The Math of Oligarchy: Money Trail

The wealth transfer from the bottom to the top is not theoretical but can be quantified. The numbers speak for themselves:

• 2008-2023: $50 trillion from workers to the top 1% (Rand, 2023).
• Since 2000, corporate profits have risen 300%, while wages have risen only 15% (EPI, 2023).
• The top 0.1% now possess more wealth than the bottom 90% combined (Saez & Zucman, 2020).

This monetary transfer is not the functioning of a free market—it is a kleptocracy, where the rich and powerful utilize the regulations to rig the game so they always win.

The Deep State Is the Oligarchy—And They Are Not Hiding

The so-called Deep State is not some vague conspiracy; it is the system working exactly as designed. The oligarchs no longer work in the shadows—they govern in plain sight, shielded by media complicity, legalized bribery (lobbying), and a two-party duopoly that stages opposition while serving the same masters. Trump, Vance, Musk, and Bessent are not exceptions—they are the rule. The Deep State is not a fringe theory. It is the system. Trump truthfully told us it is a rigged system. Trump, Musk, Vance, and Bessent are rigging it further. They just sucked Americans' 401 K's nearly dry.

References

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