The Musk-Trump Administrative Coup as Neocolonial Privatization

Analyzing the Current Wave of Capitalist Enclosure and Strategies for Resistance

The administrative coup being led by Elon Musk and Donald Trump should be understood as the latest phase in a centuries-long process of privatization and capitalist enclosure. Their effort to seize control of public institutions, infrastructure, and data is a continuation of the same dynamics that drove feudal peasants from the commons into the emerging capitalist order.

Understanding this moment through the lens of neocolonialism and enclosure provides a framework for resistance that goes beyond electoral politics and toward systemic transformation. Below, I provide an analysis of the current phase of enclosure, strategic insights, and recommendations for action.

The Administrative Coup as the Latest Phase of Privatization & Enclosure

Historical Context: Waves of Capitalist Enclosure

• Enclosure of the Commons (16th-18th Century): Feudal peasants were displaced from communal lands, criminalized, and forced into urban wage labor or exported as indentured servants and penal laborers.

• Colonial Land Seizures & Resource Extraction (17th-20th Century): The expansion of European empires privatized indigenous lands, expropriated resources, and commodified human labor through slavery and indenture.

• Neoliberal Privatization (20th-21st Century): Governments transferred public assets (water, energy, education, transportation) to private corporations, increasing inequality and stripping democratic control from economic infrastructure.

• Today’s Digital Enclosure (21st Century): Data, AI, public institutions, and knowledge itself are being privatized and monopolized by tech oligarchs and authoritarian politicians.

The administrative coup launched by Trump and Musk is an extension of this process—this time targeting state intelligence, financial infrastructure, and governance itself.

1. How Musk & Trump’s Coup Advances the Privatization of Governance
   Enclosing the Administrative State

   1. Trump’s “Schedule F” plan will allow him to purge tens of thousands of career civil servants and replace them with corporate-loyalist appointees, effectively privatizing government oversight.

   2. This mirrors how colonial states replaced indigenous governance with corporate rule (British East India Company, Dutch VOC).

2. Seizing Public Data as a Capital Asset

   1. Elon Musk’s takeover of Treasury Department data is an act of digital enclosure—data, like land under feudalism, is a commons that is now being privatized.

   2. Musk’s Starlink, X (formerly Twitter), and AI ventures position him as the feudal lord of digital infrastructure, controlling access to knowledge, finance, and communication.

3. Turning Public Infrastructure into Corporate Territory

   1. Musk’s expansion into military contracting (SpaceX, Starlink) and public transit (The Boring Company) creates a tech-driven form of corporate colonialism, where public goods serve private wealth accumulation.

   2. Trump’s plan to privatize 2/3 of federal government office space is the latest iteration of the neoliberal sell-off of public assets.

4. Reintroducing Corporate Authoritarian Rule

   1. Trump’s fusion of corporate interests with state power mirrors the neocolonial practice of using multinational corporations as governing bodies, where profits dictate policy.

   2. If Trump returns to power, regulatory agencies will be gutted and government functions will be handed over to private actors.

This isn’t just privatization—it’s the re-colonization of governance itself.

Recognize That This Is Not Just About Elections

• Trump and Musk’s strategy is about institutional capture, not just electoral victory. Even if Trump or his heir loses the next election, their infrastructure of power will continue consolidating corporate control over public institutions.

• This means resistance must be sustained beyond 2024, 2025, and the mid-term elections and even the 2028 election, and must be focused on dismantling corporate authoritarian control at every level.

Frame the Fight as a Struggle Against Neocolonialism & Capitalist Enclosure

• This is a continuation of past struggles against land theft, forced labor, and corporate rule—understanding it in this context helps build coalitions across movements.

• Position labor, indigenous rights, racial justice, and digital rights movements as part of a unified anti-enclosure resistance.

Attack the Legitimacy of Corporate Rule Over Public Life

• Expose Musk as an unelected dictator of digital and economic infrastructure.

• Highlight how Trump’s corporate-authoritarian state is eroding local self-governance, community wealth, and public control over resources.

Recommendations for Action: How to Defeat This New Enclosure

1. Build Mass Resistance to “Schedule F” and the Coup Against the Administrative State

• Demand Congress block/roll back Schedule F.

• Build a unionized defense of public-sector workers against mass purges.

• Pressure Democratic state governments to create parallel institutions that can resist federal takeovers of governance.

2. Take Back Digital Infrastructure as a Public Utility

• Push for publicly owned AI, social media, and internet services to break the monopoly power of Musk’s platforms.

• Expose the neocolonial nature of data privatization—fight for strong digital privacy laws that limit corporate control over state and citizen data.

3. Defend Public Infrastructure from Corporate Takeover

• Fight the privatization of federal buildings and land.

• Block state-level sell-offs of public transportation, water, and energy systems.

• Demand reinvestment in publicly owned infrastructure, funded by taxes on the billionaire class.

• Remind the public that we paid for the data and public infrastructure that is being seized, so putting it in private hands is an act of extreme worker exploitation and a violation of public trust.

4. Build Alternative Institutions That Can Resist Corporate Governance

• Expand worker cooperatives, land trusts, and community-owned infrastructure as a counter-model to corporate rule.

• Strengthen labor unions and grassroots movements that can challenge the dominance of corporate control over public life.

• Support indigenous-led land and governance movements as frontline resistance to corporate colonialism.

5. Mobilize for Economic & Digital Disruption if Trump Regains Power

• If Trump takes office and accelerates the administrative coup, organize mass refusal to comply with authoritarian governance.

• Use general strikes, work stoppages, and economic disruption tactics to resist corporate-controlled governance.

• Prepare to build independent digital networks/ a digital union if Musk-controlled platforms are used to suppress dissent and manipulate information.

Final Thought: We Must Fight This as a Systemic Coup Against Democracy

Trump and Musk’s administrative coup is not just an attack on the government—it is an effort to replace democracy with corporate feudalism. If we fail to recognize this as part of a centuries-long pattern of capitalist enclosure, we will remain stuck in short-term fights that fail to dismantle the deeper system of corporate control. One does not need to be an anti-capitalist to recognize this as a negative result of capitalist logics and a logical step in a centuries long process of wealth accumulation and oppose it.

The fight against authoritarianism is the fight against privatization. The fight for democracy is the fight to reclaim public power from corporate elites. The resistance must be organized accordingly.