-Analysis-
PARIS — On Jan. 17, 1961, U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower, a former World War II hero, delivered his final message to the nation before the end of his term. He cautioned Americans: “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes.”
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President Joe Biden clearly had the famous quote from his predecessor — albeit a Republican — in mind when he delivered his own final message on Wednesday. With a warning that echoes that of 1961 on the “military-industrial complex,” he addresses the risk of “the potential rise of a tech-industrial complex that could pose real dangers to our country as well.”
The outgoing president, whose term ends Monday, said that “an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence, that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.” He urged American citizens to become “keepers of the flame.”
The new oligarchs
This clearly alludes to Elon Musk, but also to other American technology giants who have pledged allegiance to President-elect Donald Trump in recent days, including Mark Zuckerberg at Meta and Jeff Bezos at Amazon.
Hence the strong term “oligarchy” that is more often associated with the post-Soviet Russian context than the American one. Oligarchy, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, describes “a government in which a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes.”
Defenders of tech bosses present them these days as “disillusioned” with democracy. These men are acting in the name of free speech. Besides the fact that removing information verification, as the owner of Facebook just announced, has nothing to do with freedom of expression, the issue is certainly elsewhere.
Where the power is going
In the marriage between Trump and part of Silicon Valley, there is first a power issue: Trump’s political power, and that of the new barons of the American economy, the technology sector. These are the players who constitute the spearhead of U.S. economic power today. It’s a marriage of convenience unfolding before our eyes.
The consequences are concrete. In his video last week, Zuckerberg called on the future Trump administration to help roll back regulation, particularly targeting Europe.
Several Silicon Valley heavyweights are allying to obtain a larger share of Pentagon contracts.
Meanwhile, Financial Times recently reported that several Silicon Valley heavyweights — such as the software company Palantir and the defense tech company Anduril — soon joined by Musk, were allying to obtain a larger share of Pentagon contracts. That would come at the expense of the last century’s industrialists, including Boeing, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin.
This is what Biden is targeting with this attack on the “tech-industrial complex.” As he bows out, the old Democratic veteran warns against this worrying new world, which he has not been able to oppose.
