Gillian Schutte.
Image: IOL
Elon Musk’s theatrical entrance onto Donald Trump’s stage—what some have called the “Heil Hitler” moment—was not just a display of erratic showmanship. It was a defining image of our era, a moment in which the long-obscured alliance between billionaire capital and political authority was laid bare.
What many reacted to as an 'aberration' or a 'new development' was, in fact, nothing less than the latest act in a long-established tradition of capitalist rule. What is new, however, is that the actors no longer feel the need to obscure their dominance.
The same resourced power of figures like Musk, Trump, Mark Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel, and Jeff Bezos has always shaped the modern world, but now, rather than operating through subterfuge and quiet negotiation, it is being flaunted in full public view, like feudalism.
And in doing so, it has forced a crisis—not for the billionaires, who remain untouchable, but for the liberal elites who, even if they will not admit it, have long served as their gatekeepers.
For decades, the liberal establishment has carefully curated the illusion of progress. They have fashioned themselves as guardians of democracy, champions of equality, and defenders of justice, all while ensuring that their interventions never truly disrupt the structures that keep the wealthiest in power.
Their strategy has been clear: champion causes that appear progressive but only so far as they do not threaten capital.
When radical demands for economic justice, wealth redistribution, or corporate accountability arise, they are quickly neutralised—co-opted into the safe language of reform, diluted into bureaucratic half-measures, or dismissed as populist extremism.
Liberalism has played an expedient role in diffusing revolutionary potential, ensuring that outrage against inequality is channelled into acceptable, non-threatening avenues that nurture neoliberalism and preserve the status quo.
This is why, for years, those who warned of the creeping dominance of billionaires were dismissed as conspiracy theorists. The ruling class has always relied on secrecy, backroom negotiations, on the quiet manipulation of institutions to sustain itself.
But now, that secrecy is no longer necessary. The partnership between Trump and the tech oligarchs is not being hidden—it is being celebrated.
The sheer brazenness of their collusion exposes what had long been kept behind closed doors: the state and the market are not in opposition, nor is the state a regulator of capitalism. The state exists to serve capital. And now that the pretence has fallen away, the liberal order finds itself in an existential crisis.
The horror expressed by liberals at this overt merging of billionaire wealth with governance is not about their rejection of the system itself. That has never been their modus operandi. Rather, it is a reaction to the loss of their own role within it.
Let’s face it, the liberal establishment has, for decades, operated as a buffer zone—a layer of professional managerial elites, NGO leaders, corporate-funded academics, and media gatekeepers who mediate between the raw power of capital and the public.
This class does not exist to challenge capital. It exists to manage it, to legitimise it, to craft narratives that render its control palatable. The fusion of billionaires and political power has not changed the system itself, but it has bypassed the liberal intermediaries who once justified and sanitised its workings.
Trump’s open embrace of tech oligarchs like Musk and Zuckerberg represents a reconfiguration of capitalist rule that sidelines the liberal managerial class. These billionaires no longer need to rely on traditional political institutions, the NGO sector, or media professionals to legitimise their power.
They do not need a Democratic Party that cloaks its corporate allegiances behind social justice rhetoric. They do not need the language of inclusivity or the optics of progressive leadership. Instead, they can wield power directly. And this, more than anything, is what terrifies the liberal class.
For years, neoliberalism has ensured that regulatory oversight remained an illusion. Under the veneer of economic efficiency and market freedom, deregulation, privatisation, and financialisation have flourished, all while liberal politicians assured the public that these measures were compatible with democracy.
The state has steadily shed its role as a guarantor of social welfare and instead entrenched itself as the protector of capital. In this context, the liberal outrage at Trump’s billionaire alliances rings hollow. What is happening now is not a departure from the system they created; it is simply the logical conclusion of their policies.
The role of digital media in this spectacle cannot be overstated. For decades, the ruling class controlled narratives through traditional media institutions, where dissenting voices could be marginalised and public debate carefully managed.
Social media has disrupted this order—not by democratising information, as was once hoped, but by turning elite power into public spectacle.
Every move by Musk, every populist flourish by Trump, every calculated statement by Zuckerberg is instantly amplified, consumed, and debated. The ruling class can no longer hide behind the polished discretion of boardroom politics.
The contradiction at the heart of capitalist governance is now laid bare for all to see: a system that claims to champion democracy is in fact ruled by an unaccountable economic elite.
From a Marxist-Leninist perspective, this moment should not be understood as a break from the past but as the sharpening of capitalism’s internal contradictions. As Lenin observed, the state under capitalism is always an instrument of bourgeois domination.
What we are witnessing now, rather than the corruption of democracy, is its true function revealing itself: a political system designed to serve the interests of a ruling class that has now outgrown the need for ideological mediation. This has deep implications not just for the United States but for the global order.
The exposure of this raw power dynamic forces a fundamental question: does this moment of clarity lead to revolutionary rupture, or does it merely entrench billionaire rule even further? The convergence of wealth and political authority has long been a global phenomenon, but the removal of the liberal buffer changes the nature of resistance.
The NGOs, the think tanks, the well-funded civil society organisations that have long contained revolutionary energy within safe, donor-approved parameters are losing their relevance. Their function as mediators is no longer required. This creates both a danger and an opportunity.
On one hand, the ruling class, now more exposed than ever, may resort to more authoritarian measures to secure its dominance. The surveillance state, digital censorship, and corporate influence over information flows have never been stronger.
The very platforms that have revealed these power dynamics—social media networks controlled by the same billionaire class—are also tools of mass control. Without the liberal establishment as a buffer, capitalist rule may indeed shift towards more direct, coercive forms of governance.
On the other hand, this exposure may well serve as the long-overdue wake-up call for those who have placed their faith in liberalism as a counterweight to capitalism.
The realisation that there is no democratic capitalism, no ethical billionaires, no benign markets waiting to be tamed by progressive politicians, could spark the kind of rupture that finally breaks the global stranglehold of neoliberal ideology.
For the first time in generations, the lie is unsustainable. If this moment radicalises the working class—not just in the United States, but internationally—then it could serve as the beginning of a mass movement that does not seek to return to the illusory stability of the past but to dismantle the structures of elite rule altogether.
This unmasking of both liberal elites and their Frankenstein creation—Trump and his billionaire cabal—may be the very catalyst that ignites a global awakening.
Neoliberalism has never provided real oversight; it has simply offered the illusion of control while ensuring that the market remains untouchable and the ruling class remains unchallenged.
Now, that illusion is breaking down. The liberal class, having spent decades justifying and enabling this system, finds itself exposed alongside the very forces it helped unleash. In trying to contain the chaos, they have inadvertently laid bare the true mechanisms of power.
If there is a moment for the world to wake up and recognise that neither liberalism, neoliberalism, nor billionaire autocracy will deliver justice, it is now. The spectacle of power, once managed with discretion, has become so grotesque that it may finally shatter the global trance.
If anything can reset the balance, it is not another round of carefully choreographed elections or reformist half-measures, but a true global uprising—one that does not beg for fairer capitalism but rejects it entirely.
* Gillian Schutte is a film-maker, and a well-known social justice and race-justice activist and public intellectual. Follow Gillian on X - @GillianSchutte1 and on Facebook - Gillian Schutte.
** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.
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