On January 20th, 2025, millions were shocked to find the faces behind America’s richest companies getting front seats next to Trump and his family, along with other influential figures. The combined wealth of the people present reached well over 1 trillion US dollars, 1/25th of our GDP. 1/25th might not seem like a lot but out of the world’s 197 countries, only around 10 countries make more or only nearly as much money. In order to answer whether or not America is an Oligarchy, there would need to be an explanation for what is an Oligarchy first. An Oligarchy is a society where powerful individuals (Oligarchs) control practically everything or almost everything, to the point where their wealth can impact the country directly. Is America an Oligarchy today? The answer varies on perspective and personal opinion, but the overall answer is “somewhat.” This is because when looking at stocks, influence, and wealth combined, it really does seem like they somewhat control this nation.

Influence: Most of the rich people at the inauguration were huge players in tech, but looking at the state of the world right now, it sure looks like a tech race between us and the rest of the world. On top of that, artificial intelligence is growing at a huge pace which would likely influence the fate of many in the future. Recently, the introduction of DeepSeek, an AI bot like OpenAI, made stocks of tech companies drop by an average of nearly 10%, leading to a loss of money for shareholders, investors, and possibly even employees.                                                                                                             

Wealth: As mentioned before, these tech giants hold a combined wealth of 1 trillion US dollars, one 25th of our GDP for perspective. Half of it from one man alone, Elon Musk. Elon Musk is the founder of SpaceX and Tesla. Tesla is the biggest electric vehicle company in America and the western world. SpaceX is America’s leading space exploration company, maybe even beating NASA. As of recently, Elon Musk who aided Trump’s campaigns was made head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE, for short. The purpose of this department is to essentially remove US departments deemed, “unfit and not needed for governmental funds,” which could then be directed to other places. Possibly to the funds of some companies with ties to the government or an inner circle. Other notable billionaires, also with immense wealth, are Tim Cook of Apple, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, and Sundar Pichai of Google. Apple is the world’s leading and most popular electronic brand by far, with billions of loyal customers. Meta is the company behind many of the apps we use today, most notably Instagram and Facebook. Amazon is what almost every American uses for online purchases and shopping, and Google is what millions if not billions of people use to search and gain information. All of them can benefit from DOGE, and also control many, through just their apps and wealth alone. Most things happen unseen and in secret. Just these 5 people have too much wealth and power over the average American.                                                                                                                                                             

Stocks and financial overview: This section was added to backup how these 5 people and their companies may control, or heavily influence government, and the people of this nation. If you were to search up stocks and how much these companies are worth, you would find that the total would be trillions of dollars with around 30-45% percent going to the government for taxes or other reasons. Now say that in a scenario, their stocks crashed and that their companies went into bankruptcy, what would happen to this additional income? It would be gone. Without just these 5 people’s companies America can lose up to 1-2 trillion dollars of income (GDP) a year. This can be used in two ways: Threatening, or deals, with government officials to increase both the government’s GDP and the giant’s themselves income. As a side note: Former President Biden made an address to the nation about the rise of Oligarchs in America before he left office.                                                                                                                   

With the “Yes” side of the argument finished, let’s move to the “No” side. Even though the tech figures really do have influence, they make up around 9-10% of America’s GDP at the moment, while other industries combined make more than them at the moment. For example: the business, finance, and manufacturing industries still make more than the tech industry, therefore technically giving them more influence than the tech giants at the moment.                                                                                                            

In conclusion, the answer to the question, “Is an Oligarchy taking place today in America?” is “yes” more than “no.” From the concentration of wealth growing at a massive pace that hasn’t been seen before, to Trump bringing the tech leaders closer to his inner circle, it’s hard to say the answer is “no” at the moment. Of course, the real truth is hidden behind layers of secrets and shrouded in mystery.