Biden warns of ‘oligarchy’ during farewell speech

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Joe Biden urged Americans Wednesday to stand guard against a “dangerous” oligarchy forming under Donald Trump as he delivered a dark farewell address before stepping down next week.

In a primetime speech from the Oval Office at the end of his single term in office, he warned of an ultra-wealthy “tech industrial complex” that he said could gain unchecked power over the American people.

“Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms,” the 82-year-old Democrat said.

Biden began his speech by touting the legacy of his four years in office, saying it may take time to feel the benefits but that the “seeds were planted” for Americans in the future.

But he soon turned to painting a series of dangers that he said were facing the US, which clearly referred to billionaire Trump’s close ties to the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, and other tech tycoons.

Biden warned there was a “dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra-wealthy people” with “dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left unchecked.”

‘Avalanche of misinformation’

He then lashed out at social media firms, with Musk having turned X into a right-wing megaphone and Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg ending fact-checking operations in the US as he courts Trump.

“Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation,” Biden said.

“The free press is crumbling. Editors are disappearing. Social media is giving up on fact checking. The truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit.”