AOC Slams ‘Billionaire Feeding Frenzy’ At Trump Trough: ‘It Is A Kiss-Ass Race’

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Democrat, New York) is slamming the US billionaire class for going “all in” on President Donald Trump after his election victory in November, noting that many who previously criticised him are now in a “kiss-ass race” to show Trump their utmost fealty.

“All of these people that were scared before about being associated with him, from the most common basic level to the most elite level, they’re all all-in now because this is now a billionaire feeding frenzy,” she said Thursday on Jon Stewart’s The Weekly Show podcast.

“It is a kiss-ass race,” Ocasio-Cortez continued. “It is, ‘How can I show how much fealty I have to Donald Trump in order to get my digs?’ I think what’s really important for people to understand, now and every day of this administration, is that you’re being ripped off.”

Rep. Bernie Sanders (Independent, Vermont) similarly shared concern Tuesday about a potential oligarchy in the US, noting billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk already own a major news publication and social media platform, The Washington Post and X (formerly Twitter), respectively.

Trump recently bragged about all the rich tech moguls who visited him after the election, including Bezos, who slammed Trump in 2016, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who said in 2020 that he was “disgusted” with Trump’s “divisive rhetoric.”

Both men attended Monday’s inauguration alongside several other wealthy executives: Google’s Sundar Pichai, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Apple’s Tim Cook and Musk — who is reportedly getting an office at the White House to lead his new Department of Government Efficiency.

Ocasio-Cortez said the list of prior Trump critics now currying favor with him has helped normalize Trump in American culture — making his second term “so much more dangerous” than the first.

“The first time, people were really on edge, they were on guard, they were very vigilant about any break that he would have with these norms,” the New York lawmaker said Thursday. “This time, the norms are becoming him — the norms are embracing him.”

“Even these little things that everyday working people may not care about, but they are strong cultural signals,” she continued. “Oscar de la Renta dressing all of the women, there’s all these cultural symbols.”

De la Renta did indeed dress both Ivanka Trump and Second Lady Usha Vance in custom ensembles — and shared photos of their looks on the official Oscar de la Renta Instagram account.

“Everyone is being ripped off,” Ocasio-Cortez said of Trump’s newpoliciesalreadynegativelyaffectingvoters. “And he goes up there, and he says what he wants to say, but he’s just the quintessential New York con man.”