Trump ushers in 'whole new era of scamminess' now that 'the mask is fully off': analysis

21 January

During his second inauguration on Monday, January 20, President Donald Trump was surrounded by a who's-who of billionaire tech CEOs — including Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, and X's Elon Musk. Zuckerberg and Bezos were critical of Trump in the past, but they made a concerted effort to reach out to him after he won the 2024 election. And Musk, now the richest man in the world, is among Trump's top allies.

Trump critics have been using the word "oligarchy" to describe Trump's alliance with top tech CEOs. But Salon's Amanda Marcotte, in a blistering article published the day after Trump's inauguration, isn't sure the word "oligarchy" applies — as the inauguration, she argues, felt more like a gathering of scammers and grifters.

"The farcical nature of the inauguration was a fitting reminder that everything about the MAGA movement is a scam," Marcotte writes. "The weekend before the inauguration, Trump cashed in on his cultists' faith with a grift so obvious it would make Jim Bakker blush: releasing meme coins named after himself and his wife. Judd Legum of Popular Info summed up the move with, 'Trump has turned the inauguration itself into a brazen grift, launching a meme coin hours before being sworn in.'"

Marcotte continues, "Big words like 'oligarchy' are being thrown around in the face of the tech billionaire's row at the inauguration, but that may be giving them too much credit. What attracts these vultures is the stench of scam that exudes from Trump. There was once a time when Silicon Valley made money by creating useful products people wanted, but that time has passed. We're now in the era where the entire internet looks like an e-mail to your grandmother from a purported Nigerian prince who will marry her in exchange for her Social Security checks."

The Salon journalist notes that the Biden Administration had a history of "waging war on corporate scammers, suing them for junk fees," but laments that "those efforts will be killed or canceled with Trump's return."

"Above all else," Marcotte warns, "Trump is here to be the handmaiden for a whole new era of scamminess. However miserable your consumer experience was before, wait until these already-wealthy vampires snake their hands further into your pockets…. There was once a time when the conservative argument behind 'capitalism works' would be something about free markets and competition creating prosperity for all."

Marcotte continues, "Now, the mask is fully off, and we see what this slogan really means: rich people get all the money, and the rest of us can suck eggs — if you can even find them anymore at the supermarket."

Amanda Marcotte's full Salon article is available at this link.

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