In 2016, during his first presidential campaign, Donald Trump used a slogan that struck a chord with the American working-class electorate: "Drain the swamp!" The idea was to denounce the elites and lobbies who, behind the scenes, apparently ran the country in the interests of the few, to the detriment of the rest of the population.
With Trump due to be inaugurated for the second time on January 20, the expression has all but disappeared from his vocabulary. Legitimized by a solid electoral base, the billionaire no longer even pretends to present himself as the herald of an America free of corruption and cliques.
The worrying stranglehold of tech tycoons on political power is a case in point. The transition period between his upcoming presidency and Joe Biden's has been marked by potential conflicts of interest and the distribution of stipends to the benefit of a handful of Silicon Valley executives.
Among them, two categories can be distinguished. The first comprises those who bet on Trump by supporting his campaign and expect to reap the dividends thanks to policies favorable to their business. And then there are those who, realizing that the tide is turning, pledge allegiance to the new "boss" of the US at the 25th hour, to buy his favor. Ready to renounce the few principles they had up until then, they shamelessly join the winning side.
Among this second group is Mark Zuckerberg. The boss of Meta (parent company of Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp) has just announced a substantial relaxation of moderation rules on his social media platforms, to the satisfaction of Trump. Zuckerberg is opening up a path to post-truth at the worst possible moment, as a man who has made it his trademark comes to power.
As for Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and owner of the Washington Post, he has made multiple gestures to the incoming occupant of the White House to curry favor. Meta and Amazon each contributed more than $1 million to finance the president-elect's inauguration ceremony. Business is business.
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