In his farewell address to the nation, President Biden warned of a rising oligarchy in America as President-elect Donald Trump plans to have the richest man in the world head the new agency (DOGE) with multi-millionaire Vivek Ramaswamy, and nominates billionaires for cabinet positions including Howard Lutnick (Commerce) Scott Bessent (Treasury) and Linda McMahon (Education).
Former Ohio Governor John Kasich responded to Biden’s speech on MSNBC by noting that Biden spoke about The Gilded Age, which was right before the dawn of the 20th Century, when there was “a collection of super wealthy people” who “had enormous power.” (Gilded Age figures like Carnegie, Vanderbilt, Rockefeller and JP Morgan were the Musk, Bezos, and Zuckerberg of their day.)
At such times, Kasich said, “one needs to be concerned.”
In America, we champion opportunity for all and we should celebrate success, but we also need to be careful not to allow for the concentration of too much power among a small group of unelected individuals. We’ve seen this before in America during the Gilded Age and eventually… pic.twitter.com/c4LZzBubId
— John Kasich (@JohnKasich) January 16, 2025
“Just because you’re wealthy doesn’t mean you’re out of touch, but if you are super wealthy there is a tendency to not go to the grocery store and pick up your ice cream or your bread and figure out how much things cost,” Kasich said.
[Note: In 2017, the former GOP presidential candidate said his estimated net worth ($9- $22 million) wasn’t enough to win an election and suggested an independent “really wealthy” candidate, a billionaire like a Mike Bloomberg could. Kasich said: “there’s other people like Jeff Bezos. I don’t think (South African-born Tesla boss Elon) Musk, but there’s people who have billions who would be willing to put lots of money in.” About this, Kasich has proved remarkably correct — Musk spent hundreds of millions supporting Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign.]
On Friday, Ramaswamy — who was reportedly being considered for VP-elect JD Vance’s Senate seat — announced that he’s running for Governor in Ohio in 2026, after Republican Governor Mike DeWine appointed Lt. Governor Jon Husted to take Vance’s seat.
DeWine is term-limited and ineligible to seek a third consecutive term.
Former Ohio AG Dave Yost (R) has declared his own gubernatorial run and Democratic former director of the Ohio Department of Health Amy Acton (2019–2020) has declared her run.