On Monday, Donald Trump will be sworn in as US president and yesterday Joe Biden gave his farewell address at the White House.
In his last public address to the nation, the 82-year-old Biden warned that a new oligarchy of tech moguls is taking over the United States, threatening democracy and the rights and freedoms of the American people.
– Today, 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, the heavily criticized president proclaimed.
According to Biden, it is “a dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra wealthy people” that risks undermining the very foundation of the American way of life.
The speech was clearly inspired by then-President Dwight Eisenhower’s 1961 address to the nation, but where he highlighted the dangers of an emerging “military-industrial complex”, Biden instead warned of the “tech-industrial complex”.
– Powerful forces want to wield their unchecked influence to eliminate the steps we’ve taken to tackle the climate crisis, to serve their own interest for power and profit. We must not be bullied to sacrifice in the future, the future of our children and our grandchildren, he continued.
“An avalanche of disinformation”
The Democrat further argued that Americans today are “buried under an avalanche of disinformation”, that “the truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit” and also warned that the development of artificial intelligence “risks creating new threats” to Americans, their rights and way of life.
The resignation speech has drawn mixed reactions. While many agree with the outgoing president that Silicon Valley has a huge influence on American politics, critics also point out that during his time as president, the Democrats and even Biden himself have shown a flexible approach to citizens’ rights and freedoms, judging by the strict COVID-19 policies.
Against this background, others question Biden’s criticism and argue that he is not fundamentally critical of the fact that power is in the hands of a few individuals – but rather that the conflict is about the fact that the tech billionaires who support Donald Trump belong to a different part of the power establishment and thus compete with the Democrats.
Biden says he’s worried about “wealthy billionaire oligarchs.” Well he just gave a Medal of Freedom to George Soros—who didn’t even show up to collect it. He sent his son. pic.twitter.com/vjPQkA1XtL
— Link Lauren (@itslinklauren) January 16, 2025
It also points out that while it is true that some of the world’s richest people are funding Donald Trump and the Republicans, Biden and the Democrats have also frequently received donations from multi-billionaires with political ambitions, including perhaps most notably extensive support from the notorious ultra-globalist George Soros, and that it is unclear how the Democrats’ billionaires are “better” than the Republicans’.