AMY GOODMAN: I want to bring in our next guest. President Trump’s return to the White House comes 15 years to the week after the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark Citizens United ruling, which opened the floodgates for billionaires like Elon Musk to pour unlimited money into elections. At Trump’s inauguration on Monday, Elon Musk was given a prime seat, along with Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Apple’s Tim Cook, Google’s Sundar Pichai. Vermont independent Senator Bernie Sanders commented, “When the three wealthiest men in America sit behind Trump at his inauguration, everyone understands that the billionaire class now controls our government,” unquote.

We go now to Brendan Fischer, deputy executive director at Documented, lawyer with expertise in campaign finance and government transparency issues. He has a new article out today in Rolling Stone headlined “Blame the Supreme Court for Elon Musk’s Power in Trump’s Administration.”

Talk about the significance of this week, Brendan, the 15th anniversary of Citizens United. And for people who don’t understand what it is, trace the trajectory of the Supreme Court decision right through to the power of Elon Musk in the White House today.

BRENDAN FISCHER: Sure. And thank you for having me, Amy and Juan.

So, everything that Rob Weissman just described is entirely accurate. And it’s a result — Musk’s astonishing influence over Trump and this new administration, you know, is not just a result of his right-wing celebrity, his personal wealth, his ownership of X. It’s largely attributable to Musk having poured over a quarter-billion dollars into the 2024 election cycle. And almost all of that spending would have been impossible before Citizens United.

Citizens United struck down limits on, quote-unquote, “independent” political spending, and it opened the door to super PACs and dark money groups that billionaires like Musk have used to pour this astonishing amount of money into U.S. elections. And Musk’s ability to translate his economic power into political power is what offers him this very privileged and powerful position in the incoming administration. And that’s going to benefit Musk, and the rest of us are likely to pay the price.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Brendan, I think OpenSecrets reported that about more than 40% of the total money raised by Trump came from just 10 individuals in the country. Have we ever experienced a presidency so beholden to such a small group of people?

BRENDAN FISCHER: This is unprecedented. It’s certainly true that every election cycle since the 2010 Citizens United decision has been more expensive than the last. Democrats and Republicans have both embraced super PACs and embraced the megadonors that fund them. But Trump is taking this to another level. As you said, over 44% of the money raised to support Trump came from just 10 donors, and Musk being one of the top few. And, you know, that’s not something we’ve seen before. We’ve not seen that level of disproportionate spending from just a handful of wealthy billionaires.

AMY GOODMAN: So, Brendan Fischer, if you can talk about Elon Musk’s power right now, spent more than — right? — $277 million on getting Trump elected, through super PACs, and where he stands right now?

BRENDAN FISCHER: Right. Well, I think Rob Weissman described it very well. You know, Musk has this semi-formal position in the U.S. government. He has already used his formal and informal power to derail a bipartisan spending deal at the end of last year. His personal wealth has ballooned by over $170 billion in just the month following the election, you know, with investors taking the view that his companies are going to do very well under a Trump administration, given that Musk has so much influence over that Trump administration. He’s likely to continue to receive federal contracts, perhaps receive even more federal contracts. Musk’s companies that are heavily regulated or under criminal investigation are likely to receive a light touch under the Trump administration.

And his power is now even going global. You know, Musk has begun to meddle in European political affairs, and global leaders are taking that meddling seriously because of the perception or the reality that Musk has influence over the new president. So, I think many global leaders are looking at statements from Musk and wondering whether it’s actually a statement from Trump, or whether a Musk statement about global affairs is going to be adopted by the incoming Trump administration.

And again, this is a power that is attributable to Musk’s ability to pour over a quarter-billion dollars into the 2024 election, which is a direct result of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Brendan, you noted that former President Biden used his farewell address to warn the country of the move, a greater — of the country veering toward an oligarchy. Yet, what did Biden do during his presidency to restrain the influence of money in politics?

BRENDAN FISCHER: Not much. Biden’s statement about the power of the growing oligarchy and the growing tech oligarchy were certainly welcome, and they were accurate, but Biden himself did very little during his administration to limit money’s influence on politics. There were no executive orders to crack down on dark money or require contractors to disclose their political spending.

And one of the most effective or direct things that a president can do to limit money’s influence on politics or to enforce the laws limiting money’s influence on politics is to appoint commissioners to the Federal Election Commission. And the one Democrat that Biden nominated to the Federal Election Commission actually sided with the Republicans in this key advisory opinion that came out last year that allowed super PACs to coordinate with campaigns on certain canvassing and other activities. And it’s that advisory opinion that allowed Elon Musk’s super PAC to take over some central campaign operations from the Trump campaign. It allowed the Trump campaign to outsource key campaign operations to this Musk-funded super PAC, which further amplified Musk’s political influence.

So, Biden’s legacy, in many ways, on money in politics is one of deregulation. You know, it’s on his watch that the FEC has really accelerated this deregulatory turn and has allowed even more money and even more unregulated money to flow into the U.S. political system.