Trump and Musk treat the 2026 midterms as a private auction

By Maya Ellison · Reporting from Detroit · October 21, 2026

Donald Trump and Elon Musk are pouring hundreds of millions into the midterms to secure right-wing power, proving that our democracy is now just a high-stakes game for billionaires.

I grew up in Flint, Michigan. I watched the 2008 financial crisis take the houses on my block. I still pay the student loans from my sociology degree. For my generation, the ledger is clear: concentrated wealth is a weapon used against the vulnerable. Now, we are watching that weapon be used to buy the 2026 midterm elections. Donald Trump and Elon Musk are not campaigning; they are bidding. When a few men can spend nearly a billion dollars to decide who runs the country, the voting booth becomes a formality. This is not a democratic process. It is a private auction where the highest bidder buys the law.

The price of a House majority

The scale of the spending is designed to drown out every other voice. According to The Guardian, Donald Trump intends to spend a total of $400 million to aid Republican candidates. He has already disbursed $300 million of that total. This money comes from a super PAC called MAGA Inc. and a nonprofit called Securing American Greatness. Trump told Truth Social that this spending covers advertising, rallies, and "Election Integrity."

He is not alone in this spending spree. The Guardian reports that Elon Musk has spent $366 million on conservative groups and campaigns. This is the kind of money that buys a narrative. It buys the airwaves and the digital feeds of every undecided voter. Trump is not just supporting a party; he is exercising total control. He told reporters on September 4 that the money from MAGA Inc. is "my money that I control."

The Democrats are trying to play the same game, but they are outbid. Michael Bloomberg is spending $80 million to help Democratic candidates. He is focusing on flipping the US House of Representatives. Howard Wolfson, Bloomberg's political adviser, told The New York Times that Bloomberg "expects a result." This is the language of an investment, not a civic movement. It mirrors the 2020 United States presidential election (2020). There, Bloomberg spent over a billion dollars to try and buy a nomination.

The Republican National Committee is also flooding the zone. Asharq Al-Awsat reports that the RNC entered September with a balance of $126 million. Later, that balance dropped to $76 million. Much of this went to coordinated ad buys. One of the largest buys was for Senator Jon Husted in Ohio.

The legal heist of our vote

This auction is only possible because the law allows it. The mechanism at work here is the same one established by Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. The legal erasure of spending limits allows a handful of billionaires to treat democratic elections as private auctions for political power. By deciding that corporate and billionaire spending is "free speech," the Supreme Court handed the keys of the government to the donor class.

We have seen this pattern before. The 2016 United States presidential election (2016) showed the pattern. Trump used a massive war chest to disrupt political norms. Now, the disruption is systemic. MAGA Inc. entered September with $415.8 million in cash reserves. The Campaign Legal Center accused Trump of violating campaign finance rules. He claimed direct control over these expenditures.

When the law treats money as speech, only the wealthy are heard. They are the ones who can afford the megaphone. For a worker in Flint or a teacher in Detroit, a vote is a voice. For Elon Musk or Donald Trump, a vote is a commodity to be purchased through a Super PAC. This is the same systemic failure we saw during the 2008 financial crisis (2008). Back then, concentrated wealth gambled with our homes. Now, it gambles with our sovereignty.

The myth of the marketplace

The most capable defender of this system would call it free speech. They argue the First Amendment protects the right to spend money on beliefs. This view suggests that more spending simply means more engagement. It claims that billionaires are just participating in a "marketplace of ideas."

But this is a lie. A marketplace requires fair access. When Donald Trump spends $400 million and Elon Musk spends $366 million, they are not participating in a market. They are buying the store. They are pricing out every one of us. You cannot have a "marketplace of ideas" when a few oligarchs own the air. They own the soil and the digital platforms where ideas are shared.

The historical pattern predicts that this money will not be used to lower your rent or fix your water. It will be used to protect the people who funded the campaign. The long record shows that when billionaires buy the legislature, the legislature serves the billionaires. For this time to differ, we would need to see a Congress that prioritizes labor over capital. But that is not what is being bought here.

The money is flowing toward a specific goal. The Republican Party currently holds slim majorities in both the Senate and the House. Trump is spending whatever is necessary to keep that leverage. He is not fighting for the working class; he is fighting for the interests that fund MAGA Inc.

Regardless of who wins a narrow majority, the result will be the same. The new agenda will focus on corporate tax preservation and deregulation. It will ignore relief for workers crushed by inflation and gas prices. We will see the same inertia that followed the 2018 midterms. The billionaire-funded machine ensures that the people in power remain beholden to the people who paid for their seats. The auction is over, and the working class was never invited to bid.

Trump and Musk treat the 2026 midterms as a private auction

The price of a House majority

The legal heist of our vote

The myth of the marketplace

Sources