network state

'Existential threat': My NYT interview

Gil Duran

19 Mar 2025 — 4 min read

Photo by Marco Lenti / Unsplash

In the New York Times, columnist Thomas B. Edsall examines the tech oligarch takeover of the United States. Writes Edsall:

The Trump administration has enabled a small network of high-tech oligarchs to determine a vast proportion of federal spending and regulatory policy.

Much of the attention, understandably, has fallen on Elon Musk, but he is not working alone.

Edsall recognizes that the Trump administration has ceded unprecedented power to a cadre of tech oligarchs like Musk, Andreessen, and Thiel, who now wield outsized influence over the federal government. These billionaires, some openly hostile to democratic principles, seek radical institutional dismantling while using their vast resources and platforms to reshape public discourse.

The column quotes me at length:

Gil Duran, a former editorial page editor of The Sacramento Bee and The San Francisco Examiner who produces a newsletter covering the tech industry, is sharply critical of recent developments. In an email, Duran wrote:

“Having realized that money buys political power, these tech billionaires are now trying to buy the entire U.S. government. This is an unprecedented hostile takeover. With Elon Musk as their avatar, they openly dismantle the government and disregard the Constitution. They pose an existential threat to American democracy, and they see this as their moment to seize power. Many of the tech billionaires who have merged with Trump believe democracy is an outdated software system that must be replaced. They want a future in which tech elites, armed with all-powerful A.I. systems, are the primary governing force of the planet.”

For more, read the entire column: “It May Not Be Brainwashing, But It's Not Democracy, Either: How The Federal Government Became ‘An Outdated Software System That Must Be Replaced’” at this gift link:

Edsall's column also quotes John Robb, the pro-Elon Musk military analyst who has called our new tech-led government a “prototyping” of the Network State. I recently wrote about Robb's shocking analysis, in which he openly depicts the United States as a nation undergoing a radical transformation of its government style.

Here's how Robb explained the situation it in the NYT:

These billionaires are super-empowered individuals. Globalization led to their extreme wealth (it made extreme wealth concentration inevitable) and shaped their independent mind-set beyond nationalistic concerns.

Networking added to this. It amplified their influence and power. (X is the best example.) These billionaires aren’t able to dominate politics on their own. They need a political network (red-Republican/blue-Democratic) to do it for them.

I encourage you to read Edsall's column. Though it does not contain the phrase “network state,” the word “network” appears seven times. Edsall uses it in his opening sentence, and then Robb uses the word six times. (Someone really has “network” on the brain!)

Between Edsall's column and my New Yorker interview over the weekend, it seems this story is finally starting to break through. More to come!

Trump New Cities = Network State

My prediction: Trump's quest to build these weird new corporate cities (propaganda name: “freedom cities”) will eventually force the press to acknowledge the existence of the Network State ideology. There's really no other way to explain his sudden obsession with the idea which, to my knowledge, no major publication has tried to understand.

Where did Trump get the idea? Who is funding the sudden push for these corporate dystopias? Why are they seen as necessary?

I explain all in this short video, which already has over 6,000 views. Watch: