The second Trump administration has assembled an unprecedented collection of billionaire appointees, marking what some scholars describe as an “inflection point in America’s long slide toward rule by the wealthiest”4. This report examines the top influential billionaires in Trump’s regime and Republican politics, analyzing how their views may align with right-wing accelerationism—a philosophical current advocating for the intensification of capitalist processes and technological change to transform society.
The Billionaire Cabinet and Advisors
The Trump administration has brought unprecedented wealth into government positions, with combined fortunes far exceeding Trump’s first term, which was already considered the wealthiest cabinet in modern history5.
Elon Musk: The Techno-Capitalist Accelerator
As the world’s richest person with a fortune exceeding $346 billion, Musk has been appointed co-lead of the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE)5. This advisory board is tasked with reducing government waste by cutting the federal workforce, government programs, and regulations1. Musk’s outsized influence extends through his control of companies reshaping multiple industries—Tesla, SpaceX, and X (formerly Twitter)5.
Musk’s approach to governance aligns with certain accelerationist principles through his advocacy for rapid technological advancement and minimal regulatory interference. His companies pursue transformative technologies that could fundamentally alter society—electric vehicles, space colonization, and brain-computer interfaces—echoing the accelerationist emphasis on technological change as a driving force of social transformation3.
Vivek Ramaswamy: The Young Disruptor
At 39, Ramaswamy is among America’s youngest billionaires with a net worth of approximately $1 billion5. As DOGE co-lead with Musk, he brings his background as a biotech entrepreneur to government restructuring efforts1. After running against Trump in the 2024 Republican primary, Ramaswamy pivoted to become a staunch supporter5.
Ramaswamy’s approach to governance emphasizes radical deregulation and disruption of established bureaucratic structures, mirroring accelerationist interest in destabilizing existing systems to enable transformation.
David Sacks: The Crypto Accelerationist
Recently appointed as Trump’s AI and Crypto Czar, Sacks has already demonstrated his accelerationist leanings by overseeing “the reversal of an executive order issued under President Biden that had established regulatory guardrails for AI technologies”6. A member of the influential “PayPal Mafia” and cryptocurrency advocate, Sacks co-organized a Trump fundraiser that introduced the president to cryptocurrency6.
Sacks exemplifies alignment with right-wing accelerationism through his advocacy for deregulation in emerging technologies and his promotion of cryptocurrency—itself often viewed as a technology with potential to disrupt traditional financial systems and accelerate capitalist development.
Scott Bessent: Economic Accelerator
Nominated for Treasury Secretary, South Carolina-based Bessent would lead Trump’s economic team and be “responsible for imposing his aggressive tariff and tax plans”5.
Bessent’s potential role implementing aggressive economic policies aligns with accelerationist views of capitalism as a system that should be pushed to intensify rather than restrained.
Howard Lutnick: Commerce Powerbroker
Appointed to lead the Commerce Department, Lutnick brings significant wealth and business experience to a role overseeing key economic functions1. His position gives him influence over trade policies and business regulations, potentially enabling accelerationist approaches to economic governance.
Peter Thiel: The Shadow Accelerationist
While not holding an official administration position, Thiel remains immensely influential in Republican politics, particularly through his protégé, Vice President JD Vance6. Described as a “Silicon Valley conservative stalwart,” Thiel’s investments in defense technology companies Palantir and Anduril are “poised for growth under Trump’s Pentagon”6.
Thiel’s philosophical outlook has long incorporated elements resonant with accelerationist thinking, including skepticism toward democratic processes and advocacy for technological development as a means of radical social transformation.
Other Billionaire Influences
The administration also includes Linda McMahon (Education)1, Doug Burgum (Interior)1, Jared Isaacman (NASA)1, Stephen Feinberg (Pentagon)1, and Warren Stephens (Ambassador to UK)1, all bringing substantial wealth to their positions.
Beyond formal appointments, billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg have shifted their operations to align with Trump. Bezos has reportedly been “fostering a relationship” with Trump “for months” and blocked The Washington Post from making presidential endorsements2. He directed that opinion pieces must not contradict “personal liberties and free markets”2—language resonating with right-wing accelerationist values.
Similarly, Zuckerberg has moved to “ingratiate himself with Trump, rebranding the company to go all-in on a Maga-dominated Washington, shelving Meta’s once-lauded fact-checking program, eliminating DEI initiatives”2.
Right-Wing Accelerationism: Philosophical Context
To understand potential alignment between these billionaires and right-wing accelerationism, we must differentiate between:
- Philosophical right-accelerationism as pioneered by Nick Land, which views capitalism as “a positive feedback circuit, within which commercialization and industrialization mutually excite each other in a runaway process”3.
- Extremist appropriations of accelerationism by far-right groups advocating violence—a perversion of the original philosophical concept3.
The billionaires in Trump’s orbit align primarily with aspects of philosophical right-accelerationism rather than its extremist variants. Land’s position that “capital revolutionizes itself more thoroughly than any extrinsic ‘revolution’ possibly could” and that capitalism is “the engine of exploration into the unknown”3 finds resonance in the technological and deregulatory approaches of figures like Musk, Sacks, and Thiel.
Technological Singularity and Growth Acceleration
Many of these billionaires invest heavily in technologies that could contribute to a technological singularity—artificial intelligence, space exploration, brain-computer interfaces—echoing accelerationist interest in technological development reaching a point of uncontrollable, irreversible growth3.
Their views on deregulation and capital intensity align with Land’s argument that “to be ‘on the side of intelligence’ is to totally abandon all caution with respect to the disintegrative processes of capital”3. This philosophy manifests in policy through aggressive deregulation, tax cuts for business, and privatization of government functions.
Oligarchic Governance and Democratic Concerns
Harvard professors Archon Fung and Lawrence Lessig note that Trump’s “brazen embrace of billionaire ruling partners could be an inflection point in America’s long slide toward rule by the wealthiest”4. Their concerns echo a landmark study by political scientists Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page, which concluded a decade ago that America was already “not a democracy at all, but a functional oligarchy”4.
The concentration of unprecedented wealth in Trump’s administration—with cabinet members alone worth an estimated $10 billion even without counting Musk’s fortune1—raises profound questions about democratic governance in an era of accelerating inequality and technological change.
Conclusion
The billionaires in Trump’s orbit show significant alignment with philosophical right-wing accelerationism through their:
- Advocacy for deregulation and minimizing government interference
- Promotion of disruptive technologies that could radically transform society
- Belief in the superiority of market-driven over government-directed change
- Support for intensifying rather than restraining capitalist processes
However, this alignment exists primarily at the level of economic and technological philosophy, not with extremist appropriations of accelerationist ideas. The unprecedented concentration of billionaire influence in government represents not just a shift in administration personnel but potentially a fundamental transformation in how American governance functions—one that both reflects and may further accelerate the concentration of wealth and power.
As this administration proceeds, the tension between accelerationist governance by the wealthy and democratic accountability will likely define American politics in profound ways, raising fundamental questions about whether government increasingly serves the few rather than the many.
Citations:
- https://www.axios.com/2024/12/06/trump-billionaires-cabinet-elon-musk
- https://theweek.com/politics/us-election-who-the-billionaires-are-backing
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerationism
- https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty-research/policycast/oligarchy-open-what-happens-now-us-forced-confront-its-plutocracy
- https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5025300-trump-administration-billionaires/
- https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/technology/tech-news/peter-thiel-david-sacks-and-the-other-right-wing-in-silicon-valley-set-to-drive-policy-in-donald-trumps-government/articleshow/117598459.cms
- https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/hjzj1d/right_vs_left_accelerationism/
- https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/07/investing/billionaires-net-worth-trump-win/index.html
- https://www.axios.com/2024/10/16/trump-harris-megadonors-2024
- https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/elon-musk-and-peter-thiel-south-africa-raised-billionaires-fomenting-global-race-war
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- https://www.forbes.com/sites/leokamin/2024/08/14/here-are-trumps-top-billionaire-donors/
- https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-populism/the-rise-of-the-thielists
- https://www.newyorker.com/culture/infinite-scroll/how-elon-musk-rebranded-trump
- https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/06/technology/trump-musk-ai-crypto.html
- https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-tapped-unprecedented-13-billionaires-top-administration-roles/story?id=116872968
- https://www.businessinsider.com/which-billionaires-support-donald-trump-campaign
- https://thatjoescott.com/2023/12/18/why-some-billionaires-are-actively-trying-to-destroy-the-world/
- https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/12/trumps-billionaire-cabinet-is-unprecedented/
- https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/10/28/how-republican-billionaires-learned-to-love-trump-again
- https://www.businessinsider.com/billionaires-donald-trump-cabinet-administration-elon-musk-vivek-ramaswamy-2024-11
- https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-megadonors-2024-election/
- https://www.democracynow.org/2025/1/6/quinn_slobodian_musk_global_far_right
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8lL2cz5mwo
- https://www.newyorker.com/culture/infinite-scroll/techno-fascism-comes-to-america-elon-musk
- https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/how-many-billionaires-are-in-trumps-administration-and-what-is-their-worth
- https://www.marketplace.org/2025/02/11/ai-accelerationists-big-tech-guardrails-regulation-artificial-intelligence-policy-musk-openai/
- https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-populist-platform-gives-way-billionaires-agenda-rcna194639
- https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/01/meet-donald-trumps-top-10-billionaire-enablers/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/Askpolitics/comments/1hzszic/which_party_is_the_the_party_of_billionaires/
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