The Donald Trump 1 Percent Fan Club

Mr. Edsall, a contributing Opinion writer, comments weekly from Washington on politics and demographics.

President Trump is distributing executive patronage — from pardons to favorable regulatory decisions — to privileged groups, including those willing to contribute to his preferred committees and causes and those who invest in the Trump family’s crypto businesses.

Determined to get a piece of the action, the very wealthy are lining up in droves.

Despite Trump’s having lost ground in almost every demographic during his second term, one group stands firmly in the president’s camp: the superrich who have their wallets open.

In his bid to stave off a Democratic takeover of the House and perhaps the Senate, the money from these billionaires and megamillionaires is Trump’s ace in the hole, as voters across most of the political spectrum express increasing dissatisfaction with his administration.

In the process, Trump and the Republican Party have effectively become subsidiaries of the nation’s billionaire class, producing an American presidency setting new standards in oligarchy and kleptocracy.

Evidence of the pervasive corruption is endemic, in the presidential pardons to donors and the well connected, in the regulatory favoritism found at key agencies, in the flow of special interest and foreign investments into the Trump family’s cryptocurrency businesses.

While Trump’s megacontributors would prefer to keep the House and Senate under Republican control, their main concern is Trump himself. Regardless of the outcome in November, he will continue to control the federal regulatory apparatus, the commutation powers, the ability to issue executive orders and the use of foreign policy to provide investment opportunities for the favored few.

Thomas B. Edsall has been a contributor to the Times Opinion section since 2011. His column on strategic and demographic trends in American politics appears every Tuesday. He previously covered politics for The Washington Post.

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