What Musk can learn from Ma and Khodorkovsky

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Tom Wolfe coined the term “masters of the universe” as an ironic description of Wall Street traders. Elon Musk takes the idea literally. He hopes to colonise Mars.

But Musk has come down to earth with a bump. After falling out with Donald Trump, the world’s richest man has discovered that he is not even the master of Washington — let alone the universe.

Musk’s downfall is part of a global pattern. Decades of globalisation have created vastly rich oligarchs all over the world. But when money power and political power clash, there is only one way to bet. Politics always comes out on top.

In countries as different as Russia, China, Saudi Arabia — and now the US — oligarchs who have developed independent political ambitions have been forcibly reminded where the real power lies.

The triumph of politics over money might come as a surprise to both Marxists and overconfident capitalists — who believe that politicians will always dance to the tune of the super-rich.

But, as Mao observed, power flows from the barrel of the gun. Control of the organs of the state — the army, state prosecutors, tax authorities — still ultimately counts for more than billions in the bank.

Of course, politicians do need money, particularly on the way up. Elections are expensive and so are the clientelist politics of an authoritarian state. Musk’s financial backing helped Trump win the 2024 presidential election.

Vladimir Putin’s rise to the apex of power in Russia was facilitated by some of the country’s richest men — who hoped that he would be the guardian of the vast fortunes they had made in the 1990s. But, once he was firmly installed in the Kremlin, Putin showed the oligarchs who was boss. When Mikhail Khodorkovsky, then Russia’s richest man, started to become an independent political force, Putin had him arrested. Khodorkovsky served 10 years in prison. Boris Berezovsky, who had also made a vast fortune in the Yeltsin years, was forced into exile and died in mysterious circumstances.

Jack Ma, then China’s richest man, got off comparatively lightly. President Xi Jinping evidently saw Ma’s high profile and sometimes outspoken views as a challenge. After Ma gave a speech in 2020 that criticised financial regulators, the share offering of his Ant Group was suspended and Ma all but disappeared from public view. The Chinese Communist party had put the country’s most prominent capitalist in his place.

Ma stayed out of jail and has begun to make public appearances again. But Jimmy Lai, a Hong Kong media tycoon who backed the territory’s pro-democracy movement, is currently serving a long prison sentence.

In Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a man much admired by Trump, also demonstrated that he can bring the richest men in his kingdom to heel. He locked dozens of wealthy businessmen up in the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh in 2017 — ostensibly in an anti-corruption purge. Among them was Prince Waleed bin Talal, the kingdom’s most famous investor. The episode sent a message of ruthless power that has never been forgotten.

The best way for a billionaire to insulate themself from the whims of a country’s leader is to become the leader. That was the route followed by the late Silvio Berlusconi, a controversial tycoon who founded his own political party and served three terms as prime minister of Italy. Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire who became prime minister of Georgia, followed a similar route. Trump himself used his wealth to fund his entry into politics

But few oligarchs make the transition. And those who operate on the fringes need to tread carefully. To retain their wealth and liberty they must understand the boundaries. In India, the fabulously wealthy Ambani family retain close ties to Narendra Modi, the country’s prime minister. But they have never sought to challenge his leadership.

Carlos Slim, Mexico’s richest man, has stayed close to a succession of Mexican presidents, while rarely expressing political opinions. Slim’s studied neutrality has enabled him to retain influence regardless of the administration in power. He even worked with the leftist president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, collaborating on major infrastructure projects.

Many Americans would recoil at the idea that the relationship between money and power in their country can be compared with how things are done in China, Russia, Saudi Arabia or Mexico.

After all, the US is a long-standing democracy with well-established property rights. The idea that the president could use the law to pursue a vendetta against the country’s richest man still sounds a bit shocking. But the president has already said that Musk could lose federal contracts and warned him of “very serious consequences” if he backs the Democrats.

Some of Trump’s most zealous followers want to go much further. Steve Bannon has suggested nationalising Musk’s SpaceX company, which plays a crucial role in federal space programmes. He has also urged Trump to investigate Musk’s immigration status with a view to deporting him.

Expropriation? Exile? It all sounds very un-American. But this is Trump’s America. Never say never.

gideon.rachman@ft.com