Journalist Gil Durán, author of the new book "The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy", argues that many of Silicon Valley's most powerful billionaires have abandoned democracy and aligned themselves with Donald Trump's Maga movement to advance their own political and economic interests. Durán, who was permanently banned from Elon Musk's X in April, contends this alignment matters because tech leaders such as Musk and Peter Thiel are shaping government policy, surveillance and AI development while facing little regulatory oversight, with consequences for civil liberties and democratic governance.

Durán's ban followed his two-word response, "TLDR: Fascism", to a Palantir "technological manifesto" that praised American "hard power" and AI weapons while denouncing inclusivity. He points to the bosses of Meta, Google, Apple, Amazon and OpenAI appearing alongside Trump at his second inauguration, Musk's now-defunct "department of government efficiency" (Doge) overseeing mass federal firings, and Palantir's surveillance technology aiding Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportations as evidence of a close, mutually beneficial relationship between tech titans and the administration. He describes this as a fusion of Maga's grievance-driven politics with an extreme "tech supremacy" ideology promising a technological, almost transcendent future.