THE COLLABORATORS: My Latest ‘Hot Type’ Column in Byline
My weekly Hot Type column in Byline Supplement exposes the lesser known billionaires who supported Trump’s re-election and probes history for what happens to elite businessmen who prop up madmen
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Today’s Hot Type column just dropped in Byline Supplement:
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Below is an excerpt from today’s Hot Type:
Hot Type: Elon Musk and The Trump Collaborators
Heidi Siegmund Cuda on how history will remember the rogues' gallery of democracy 'gravediggers' who paved Donald Trump's path to power
“The problem isn’t government waste. The problem is that billionaires don’t pay taxes.”—Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny
I read books six at a time, using feathers as placeholders, as I research clues left by journalists of the ‘30s.
I am well informed on how entire countries can turn to the darkside, because I have read Bella Fromm’s Berlin Diary, “Blood & Banquets”, and Dorothy Thompson’s Harper’s Magazine essay, “Who Goes Nazi?” I share my findings as quickly as I can to help build resilience against all the bad things. I am read by thousands hoping to reach millions, but the enemies of democracy own the platforms. And still, we have a duty to warn.
I learned of the work of the brave women journalists from a century ago by reading The Gravediggers: The Last Winter of the Weimar Republic.
The Gravediggers authors Rüdiger Barth and Hauke Friederichs offer a day by day account of the lead up to Adolf Hitler being made Chancellor of Germany. The book documents each day from November 17, 1932, until January 30, 1933, the day Hitler took power.
“The gravediggers didn’t have to triumph,” they concluded.
That tenet is a mirror of modern America. Greed, revenge, and amoral businessmen created a perfect storm for Hitler.
From Keppler Circle to DOGE
It was in The Gravediggers I learned about Adolf Hitler’s Keppler Circle, a group of elite businessmen who worked to bring the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) to power.
The Freundeskreis der Wirtschaft or Circle of Friends of the Economy, which was also known as Freundeskreis Reichsführer SS, Freundeskreis Himmler or Keppler Circle, was a group of German industrialists whose promoted aim was to strengthen the ties between the Nazi Party and business and industry but whose legacy is far, far darker.
Before we get to that legacy, let’s look at the rogues gallery who supported Donald Trump into power.
Trump, an out of work actor with six bankruptcies who lives in a fictional reality and serves as a friend to global despots, does not carry on the tradition of American exceptionalism. Unless, by exceptional one means ability to lie with impunity. He is quite good at that.
So we turn to the elite businessmen whose lust for tax breaks must have been so great they backed Trump as the vehicle to get there, failing to remember that in 1990s Russia — when the oligarchs ran the politicians — they too could lose everything when the land becomes lawless as it is in America. They also might have benefited from reading history books, as many elite businessmen who propped up Hitler were executed by hanging.
Before we get to the fates of the Keppler Circle, let’s first expose who paid for the return of Trump.
Billionaire backer Elon Musk’s super PAC spent about $200 million to help elect Trump.
It should be noted that no one voted for the South African-born Musk, but there he is, using his bully pulpit on Twitter to cause harm to real patriots. He seems to have taken up permanent residence at Mar-a-Lago, joining in on phone calls between Trump and world leaders, sitting beside Trump in photo ops, earning him the nickname First Lady Elonia. Nothing is funny about the upside down world he has created on Xitter — part of the Invisible War that President Joe Biden ignored at all our peril.
But Musk, who communicates with war criminal Vladimir Putin, is only the most high profile billionaire backer of Trump, there are many more lesser known.
Among them:
Industrialist heir Timothy Mellon; World Wrestling Entertainment’s Linda McMahon; ex-Playboy bunny and building materials company owner Diane Hendricks; medical doctor and casino magnate widow Miriam Adelson; energy moguls Kelcy Warren and Timothy Dunn; packaging material moguls Elizabeth and Richard Uihlein; New York Stock Exchange owner Jeff Sprecher and wife Kelly Loeffler, a former US Senator; co-owner of Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas Phil Ruffin; sandwich mogul Jimmy John Liautaud; realtor Geoffrey Palmer; Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus; Johnson & Johnson heir Robert ‘Woody’ Johnson; telecom mogul Kenny Troutt; energy mogul George Bishop; financier and Chicago Cubs owner J. Joe Ricketts; investor Andrew Beal; crypto bros Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss; construction equipment mogul Don Ahern; auto business mogul Roger Penske; casino mogul Steve Wynn; real estate mogul Richard Kurtz; investor Antonio Gracias; venture capitalist Douglas Leone.
The above list of billionaire donors gave $162 million to Trump’s 2024 campaign, according to a Forbes report from August.
Many millions spent by billionaires to encourage blue collar workers to vote for Trump. Many millions of blue collar workers were seduced by multi-millionaire Joe Rogan and MMA fighters, so billionaires like Musk could deliver them austerity through the upcoming Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Now, we learn other billionaires are joining Musk in his DOGE austerity efforts — among them, hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, tech entrepreneur and businessmen Marc Andreessen and Travis Kalanick, according to Fortune.
Among the myriad ways these austerity-delivering billionaires could benefit: overseeing and decimating regulatory agencies that might otherwise infringe on unbridled capitalism.
It is such a dark wave story, which is why I am comforted by history.
As my report continues, I include details from my investigation into Keppler Circle’s elite businessmen, who didn’t appear so elite when they were on trial for their crimes — some committed suicide, others were executed by hanging or bombed by Allied forces in their bunkers. Many served prison time.
I also quote from my Bella Fromm report:
March 5, 1934: At a party: “My stomach slowly turning sour in me at the sight of Fritz Thyssen and other big industrial figures dancing eagerly in a stately and humiliating minuet around their Nazi masters.”
And I remind readers that racist fake news is seeded in countries so citizens vote against their own democracies, becoming foot soldiers for fascism.
“The Nazis didn’t need facts. They didn’t need truth to goad the mob into a rage… the narrow minded crowd was easily seduced.”—Abraham Plotkin, a reporter featured in The Gravediggers
Lastly, I note the uneasy partnerships that occur when greed has poisoned men’s souls.
That reminder is best illustrated in images of Musk and Trump on Thanksgiving looking uneasy together as they writhe to Trump’s theme song, Y.M.C.A., a gay anthem written in 1978.
I continue to mine history books for the myriad ways this could go. Lawless men eat their own.
I write that I hope the ghosts of Keppler Circle will haunt the US billionaires who propped up an amoral man — a criminal, a felon, a friend to all dictators.
“How long America endures its descent into darkness will be up to the people of a country founded on revolution.”—me in Hot Type for Byline Supplement
The above is just an excerpt from my Hot Type column. As always, I ask those who can afford to support a small global team of investigative reporters to please take out a subscription to Byline Supplement.
I also understand that if you are not able to do so at this moment, the good chaps at Byline allow me to send the column to Bette members upon request, as I noted above. Just zip a request to bettedangerous/gmail. New members will also find they are invited to unlock one report at the Byline site.
To my Bette members who support both publications, please forward the column to your allies.
I am dancing as fast as I can.
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