Is our country for sale? Here’s what we know:

• Elon Musk contributed at least $250 million to Trump’s campaign.
• Miriam Adelson, a casino magnate and supporter of Jewish and Israel causes, contributed more than $132 million for Trump’s election.
• Tim Mellon, the railroad magnate, gave at least $197 million to Trump’s election.
• Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder, is donating $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund; Mark Zuckerberg of Meta also is donating $1 million.
• Justin Sun, a Chinese national cryptocurrency entrepreneur, purchased $30 million in crypto tokens from Trump’s crypto venture, which netted Trump about $18 million.

Current Trump advisors:
• Elon Musk. Since he is outside the Trump administration, he is not subject to divestment requirements.
• Warren Stephens, worth $3.4 billion, is Trump’s nominee to be the next U.S. ambassador to Britain.
• Jared Isaacman, who is worth $1.8 billion, is Trump’s choice to head up NASA.
• Howard Lutnick, Trump’s pick for commerce secretary, is worth more than $1.5 billion due to his decades on Wall Street.
• Vivek Ramaswamy, chosen to co-lead DOGE with Musk, made his fortune in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry and is worth $1.1 billion.

Trump is rewarding these donors and others in a variety of ways. Who will their decisions and/or advice benefit? Recently, Bernie Sanders warned us that our country is rapidly becoming an oligarchy run by billionaires out to enrich themselves. Is he right? If yes, we should fear that an authoritarian oligarchy will replace our democratic republic.

Susan Gross
Winthrop