Opinion | Attention Is the Fuel of American Politics, and Trump Knows It
There’s nothing new about the problem of money in politics.We’ve been warned for decades that America is or is becoming an oligarchy.
But something has felt different about the early days of President Trump’s second term, and I think it’s this: Attention, not cash, is the form of power that most interests him.Plenty of his billionaire backers didn’t make the cut at his inauguration.The catbird seats were occupied instead by the titans of attention.
It was the leaders of Facebook and Instagram and X and TikTok and Amazon and Google that Trump was so eager to see arrayed before him.Washington is filled with lobbying offices and fund-raisers because powerful interests believe something is gained when dollars are spent.They are right.
We have come to expect and accept a grotesque level of daily corruption in American politics — abetted by a series of Supreme Court rulings that give money the protections of speech and by congressional Republicans who have fought even modest campaign finance reforms.But we have at least some rules to limit money’s power in politics and track its movements.The same cannot be said for attention.
If Trump saves TikTok and, in return, TikTok boosts pro-Trump content before the 2026 elections to help it go viral, would that be illegal? Perhaps.But would we even know it had happened? If Elon Musk turns the dials on X to tilt the conversation in the Republican Party’s direction before the 2028 elections, who will stop him?Attention, not money, is now the fuel of American politics.
It seemed clear in 2022 that Musk had overpaid when he bought Twitter for $44 billion.And if it’s judged as a business transaction, he probably did overpay.
X’s revenue is far from justifying its purchase price.But we did not know then, and we do not know now how to value the attention he bought.
In terms of attention, Musk’s purchase of Twitter turned him into the most powerful person in the world, save perhaps Trump.What is that worth?Ol...