The Irony: Escalating Power Struggle Between Strongman and Key Oligarch Threatens Regime Stability

Arnaud Bertrand on X

Sometimes I wonder how the media would write about what’s happening in the U.S. if it were just covered as the banana republic it’s rapidly turning into.

It’d probably go something like this: “Escalating Power Struggle Between Strongman and Key Oligarch Threatens Regime Stability

The unstable coalition that brought the controversial strongman back to power appeared to be cracking today as the country’s most powerful oligarch launched an unprecedented public attack on the regime.

The spat started when tech magnate openly challenged the strongman’s latest legislative package – a massive spending bill that critics say would pump $2.4 trillion into an already bloated security apparatus and military establishment, further militarizing a regime increasingly dependent on force to maintain power while ordinary citizens struggle with basic services and the country’s infrastructure crumbles.

In a brazen display of the endemic corruption that has hollowed out the nation’s institutions, the tech billionaire accused the authoritarian leader of lying about their private discussions and boldly claimed credit for installing him in power. “Without me, he would have lost the election,” the magnate declared on his social media platform.

The volatile leader, known for his history of purging former allies, responded with classic authoritarian tactics – threatening to strip the oligarch of billions in lucrative government contracts that have enriched his business empire through classic resource capture by the extractive elite.

The tech baron escalated dangerously in response, threatening to sabotage critical space infrastructure that the regime depends on for its operations, including spacecraft that rescued astronauts abandoned by the regime’s own degraded space capabilities, exposing how the oligarch has systematically captured what were once proud national assets.

In what amounted to an attempted palace coup, the oligarch openly called for the strongman’s impeachment and suggested his vice president should assume control instead.

The tech magnate also made explosive allegations linking the leader to a convicted sex trafficker, claiming that damaging files from the criminal’s network were deliberately suppressed to protect the strongman from exposure – a bombshell accusation that the regime’s propaganda apparatus swiftly buried through coordinated media attacks and threats against the oligarch, following the standard authoritarian playbook of silencing inconvenient truths through intimidation rather than transparency.

The public meltdown sent shockwaves through financial markets, with the oligarch’s electric vehicle company hemorrhaging over $150 billion in value as investors fled amid fears of state retaliation against the regime’s former kingmaker. The dramatic selloff wiped nearly $9 billion from the tech baron’s personal fortune, illustrating how quickly fortunes can shift when oligarchs fall from grace in this increasingly volatile system.

Demonstrating how the regime weaponizes legal systems against perceived enemies, a key loyalist demanded an investigation into the tech mogul’s immigration status, suggesting he should be deported from the country.

The spectacle has exposed the fundamental hollowness of the country’s fragile institutions, now reduced to mere theater. The regime’s Vice President mocked the crisis on social media, posting images that suggested the dramatic fallout was merely entertainment – a troubling sign of how normalized political chaos has become among a ruling elite that appears to treat governance as a reality show.

International observers expressed alarm that the oligarch-strongman feud in this nuclear-armed nation represents a textbook case of institutional collapse, where personal vendettas between power brokers have completely replaced functioning governance. “When you have billionaires threatening to sabotage national infrastructure because they’re feuding with the president, you’re no longer looking at a functioning regime,” observed one prominent scholar.

The irony is not lost on anyone that this is happening under a regime whose signature slogan promises to ‘Make America Great Again.'”