By Ron Cheong | Photo by A.I

There is something dystopic and Orwellian fermenting in the US – on the level of the storyline from the science fiction movie Blade Runner (Harrison Ford). And it’s being funded with big money from billionaires like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel.  

Powerbrokers Musk and Thiel 

Elon Musk and Peter Thiel go back a long way as PayPal co-owners. They have been called geniuses. A partial list of industry giants that they own or are major shareholders in includes Tesla, SpaceX, X, PayPal, Facebook, and other tech and AI companies (including satellites that control communications over the Russia/Ukraine war theatre). They both have huge billions of dollars in contracts with the US government.

Musk is now all in with Trump – running the important Pennsylvania ground game and pouring at least half a billion dollars into the critical logistics of getting out the MAGA vote on election day.

Theil sponsors the chameleon-like Vance, who is now the Vice Presidential candidate and could well take over if Trump wins—as Trump, now seventy-eight years old, declines in overall health. Vance has only eighteen months of experience in government; Thiel’s money has helped to procure him a seat in the Senate. A prevaricator like Trump lacks the apparent draw of Trump but is more polished and coherent.

They are the people behind Project 2025, although Trump now claims he has no knowledge of it. Vance, who wrote the foreword to the book on it, is now trying to water down his participation.

With their agenda to execute the 922-page Project 2025 manifesto well documented and ready to go, these individuals who became rich riding the US-type democracy and its Laissez Faire version of Capitalism would seek to deny the same opportunity and democracy, albeit flawed as it is, to the masses.   They plan to dismantle government institutions, education and social programs, and basic freedoms, raise taxes on the middle class, eliminate climate change regulations, etc., placing all power in the hands of a few tech moguls, obedient sycophants, and AI networks to run the US and presumably more.

Script from a Dystopian Netherworld 

Blade Runner did a superb job of what was clearly good sci-fi entertainment at the time of the original movie. Now, the theme of this sci-fi classic is upon us, featuring real-life megalomaniac billionaires led by Trump, with a game plan to create and control their own very real dystopian world.

A perplexing irony of MAGA’s allegiance to Trump is that many of them will be among the first to suffer if this vision comes about – with machines replacing manual labor, with social programs and education cut, and with those unable or unwilling to retrain to the new economy relegated to the fringes. This has already happened to some degree, as traditional jobs disappear, and the skills gap widens.

Paradoxically, it appears that these dislocations, which Trump participated in and would make worse in a new term, are the fuel that propelled him to cult figure status. His MAGA followers have somehow been convinced to look to him to confer privileges that existed when US automaker assembly lines and factories allowed a disproportionate standard of living. 

Lookout for Shepherds and Wolves

This belief in Trump is confounding, given that it was Trump (whose own former chief-of-staff General John Kelly denounces as clearly meeting the definition of a fascist), along with his billionaire funders, that were at the forefront of exporting jobs to low-wage countries so they could rake in even higher margins. Once the US Automakers were king, Japan, China, Korea, and other countries, formerly regarded as “low-quality manufacturers,” dominated these markets. Yet MAGA supporters now look to Trump as their savior – validating the wry observation that while the sheep are always on high alert for wolves, their shepherd will eventually eat them.

The MAGA followers seemingly fail to internalize that the existing US government’s apparatus and social programs, which Trump tells them are “the enemy within,” help allow them to buy his bibles, coins, and gold sneakers. Neither Trump, Vance, Musk, Thiel, nor the present Republican party have their interests at heart. 

Hopefully enough Americans come to realise, before it’s too late, that they’ve been sold a false bill of goods. And they make the turn that begins to help pull their democracy back from the brink.

Ron Cheong is a retired banker with extensive international experience, including the Caribbean, originally from Guyana and now residing in Toronto, as a Fellow of the Institute of Canadian Bankers with a BSc from the University of Toronto. He has contributed over 100 articles to various ethnic media publications and serves on the Ontario Council for International Cooperation.

Photo courtesy of Ron Cheong

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