The Billionaire Bulletin

Today marks the 237th anniversary of Bastille Day, when French peasants launched a revolution against a ruling elite they saw as oppressive and out of touch. More than two centuries later, Americans may have more in common with those 18th-century French peasants than we might think. Just as French aristocrats lived in splendor while ordinary people starved, we are living through an unprecedented experiment in billionaire governance.

We’re switching up The Billionaire Bulletin this month for one important reason: SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket company, went public and he just became the world’s first trillionaire. This isn’t a milestone. It’s a five-alarm fire. The truth is, Musk’s new trillionaire status marks the beginning of one of the largest wealth transfers in human history.

Elon Musk is promising a future of “amazing abundance,” where AI will raise the standard of living. His argument is straightforward: If we let the ultra-wealthy accumulate more and more, the gains will eventually trickle down to everyone else. This is the same exact logic behind decades of tax cuts for the rich, but extreme wealth concentration leaves working people worse off.

In the face of this unprecedented billionaire takeover, Americans are yearning for leaders who will stand boldly against the emerging oligarchy. Momentum is building for robust policies that tax the ultra-wealthy and break up the concentration of extreme wealth.

“The United States is the largest Oil Producer in the World, by far, so when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money,” or so Donald Trump alleged last week in a Truth social post. In typical Trump fashion, he’s not referring to everyday Americans like you and me when he says “we.” He’s talking about his billionaire buddies.

As the State of the Union approaches, Americans across the country are eager for leaders to tackle the growing affordability crisis. They’ll be watching to see if President Trump acknowledges the real culprit behind rising costs or continues to protect the billionaire class that bankrolled his campaign.

A handful of billionaires are threatening to leave California in response to a proposed wealth tax, but the evidence actually shows that the ultra-wealthy don’t leave when taxes go up.

How the “anti-monopoly nightmare” of the Warner Bros. acquisition shakes out remains to be seen, but whether Netflix or Paramount ultimately closes the deal, everyday Americans will pay a price.

As wealth inequality continues ballooning to unprecedented levels, a secretive group of ultra-rich tech moguls are building a political machine to solidify American aristocracy. Last week, the Washington Post published an exposé of the Rockbridge Network, its role in elevating J.D. Vance to the vice presidency, and plans for reshaping the country in the midterms and beyond.

Americans pay more for health care than other high-income nations but still have a lower life expectancy and higher rates of death and disease. A growing body of research shows that billionaire-backed private equity investment is making things worse.