Days after the National Guard stormed into Los Angeles against the will of local officials, tanks rolled through the streets of Washington, D.C. for a showy military parade. It was billed as a patriotic celebration, but its real purpose was to send a message: that the machinery of war belongs in our neighborhoods, that force can be normalized as part of public life, and that those in power are prepared to use it to keep their grip. It was a warning of what was to come.
In recent weeks, we have witnessed something unprecedented in modern American politics: a president openly fusing authoritarian power with oligarch wealth to suppress dissent, consolidate control and shield the elite from accountability.
President Trump’s federal takeover of the D.C. police, paired with his plan to put National Guard troops in the streets of our nation’s capital, is not just another abuse of authority. It is part of a deliberate strategy to use the machinery of the state, from militarized police to the surveillance networks of Big Tech, to keep the public in check while protecting the most powerful from scrutiny.
This is not happening in isolation. These same tech giants, financiers and corporate barons poured millions into Trump’s campaign. Now they are reaping the rewards: federal contracts, deregulation and a free hand to turn public institutions into private profit centers. Their investment in Trump has bought more than access. It has bought protection.
The Jeffrey Epstein scandal shows exactly what this merger of oligarchy and authoritarianism is designed to preserve. The web of billionaires, political insiders and intelligence connections at its core is not just protected by the system. It is intertwined with it. Federalizing D.C.’s police is not merely a distraction from Epstein. It is part of the same apparatus. When those implicated in corruption control the levers of justice, accountability becomes impossible.
The pattern is clear. In Los Angeles, Trump deployed the National Guard against the will of local officials. In D.C., he has seized control of the police. The next city could be Chicago. Each move makes it easier to accept military or federally controlled police as a normal response to political opposition.
Behind it all is the invisible infrastructure of the surveillance state, powered by private data brokers, artificial intelligence contractors and social media giants. These companies are not bystanders. They are partners, using their technology to monitor, profile and chill dissent while receiving lucrative government deals in return. This is the modern security state, an arm of Big Tech serving the political ambitions of an authoritarian president.
Much of that architecture traces back to billionaire Peter Thiel and his allies, including David Sacks, who have used companies like Palantir to fuse corporate and state power into a single apparatus of control. Palantir’s software has been deployed to fuel Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids on immigrant families, enable predictive policing in American cities, and track targets for military operations abroad — all while securing billions in federal contracts under Trump. This is not just surveillance; it is a political weapon, designed to protect the interests of those at the top by keeping workers, immigrants and activists under constant watch.
The merger between authoritarianism and oligarchy is the greatest threat to our democracy in modern history. It means the same elite class that benefits from Trump’s policies also controls the tools to silence those who challenge them. And it means that the people who most need protection, including working families, immigrants, communities of color, whistleblowers and journalists, are instead treated as targets.
History will not remember who stayed quiet. It will remember who stood up. It will remember who met an authoritarian power grab with urgency and solidarity, and who chose to retreat to the comfort of elite enclaves like Martha’s Vineyard, shoulder to shoulder with the very donor class and political power brokers whose wealth and influence help keep this corrupt system in place.
This is not a time for caution or delay. Congress must act to block this takeover, rein in the abuse of emergency powers, and preserve the line between civilian and military authority. Once that line is crossed, it will not easily be restored.
Joseph Geevarghese is executive director of Our Revolution.
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