Billionaires are spending massive sums on politics. A backlash brews.

BROOKVILLE, Indiana — Christina Persson, a 55-year-old English teacher in this small town of just over 2,600 people, is fed up with billionaires.

In May, during the debate over President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,”she spearheaded a move to erect a billboard reading, “Tax breaks for billionaires. CUTS for everyone else.”

Two months later, she set up shop at the county fair and sold “Eat the Rich” ice cream sandwiches stamped with the faces of some of the wealthiest Americans, including Elon Musk. She charged “$5 or best offer”; all 60 sandwiches were snapped up.

A single mother with a son in college, Persson, who owns a small farm and teaches at a local college, said she makes less than $30,000 a year and faces more than $190,000 in student loan payments. “I’m not even middle class, really,” said Persson, who began volunteering part-time as chair of the county Democrats this year.

When she heard about “Rage Against the Regime” demonstrations being planned this past August, she got to work organizing her neighbors. On a breezy day, about 45 protesters joined Persson in front of the stately Franklin County Courthouse, chanting and waving signs denouncing the ultra-wealthy. “It’s a class war,” Persson said. “We have an oligarchy — end of story.”

But rural Indiana is deep red territory, and many locals disagreed vehemently. A stream of vocal dissenters drove by the protest, honking horns and waving Trump banners, some even wading into the demonstration ready for an argument.

Among them was Nick Winters, 59, who sported a red “America First” cap. “If it wasn’t for the rich, we wouldn’t have a job,” said Winters, a deliveryman for a flooring company owned by billionaire Warren Buffett’s firm. “Somebody has to build the economy. We keep the rich rich, but if it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be able to pay my bills.”

Protester Bee Copeland, 28, who works in the school system, asked Winters how he could support an administration that was taking away Medicaid. He fired back, “They’re not taking it away. They’re taking away the abuse.” Copeland retorted, “They’re taking it from children! You guys aren’t educating yourselves.”

The protesters had known from the outset that this was hostile territory. Greg Hetzel, 53, who recently retired from the Army after 22 years, nodded toward the counterprotesters and said, “These guys are all hooked up to the Kool-Aid.”

Political debates about the influence of the very wealthy are not new in America; as far back as the late 1800s, the power of John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie and others sparked criticism and condemnation. The country is seeing another uptick, as tens of thousands attend “Fighting Oligarchy” rallies, a democratic socialist is propelled to the New York mayor’s office, outgoing president Joe Biden warns of “an oligarchy … of extreme wealth, power and influence,” and anti-billionaire rhetoric has become a major element of the Democratic Party’s message.

When Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) kicked off his “Fighting Oligarchy” tour in February, he attracted sizable crowds, including 3,380 at the first stop in Omaha. At Sanders’s second event, in Iowa City, he delivered two speeches, first inside the main hall and then in an overflow area.

That prompted Sanders to start venturing into more conservative places, such as Salt Lake City and Missoula, Montana. His rallies have attracted close to 300,000 people so far, his aides calculate.

“I am working hard to kind of reshape — rebuild — the Democratic Party into a grassroots working-class type party, not a corporate-funded, billionaire-funded consultant type party,” Sanders said in an interview. “And if that doesn’t work, we will be seeing people running as independents. And that’s fine with me as well.” Sanders himself is an independent but has worked closely with Democratic leaders and Senate Democrats.

Activist groups such as Indivisible and 50501, meanwhile, have attracted millions of people to “No Kings” protests, with smaller numbers turning out for “Workers Over Billionaires” demonstrations on Labor Day. While the protesters focus on several issues — often loosely unified in opposition to Trump’s challenges to democracy — Ezra Levin, co-founder of Indivisible, said the surging power of the wealthy is at the heart of their concerns.

“In all of the eight years we’ve been organizing for Indivisible, nothing has been more universally reviled than the richest man in the world is coming after your Social Security, the richest man in America is coming after the poorest kids in the world,” Levin said. “It’s so stark and blatant.”

That is a reference to Elon Musk and his DOGE team, who have said they sought to streamline Social Security and foreign aid, not eviscerate them. Many Republicans — and the ultra-wealthy themselves — say the anti-billionaire rhetoric is counterproductive; wealthy people create millions of jobs, they argue, and most Americans are more worried about their daily struggles than the power of the rich.

“It has become a talking point for progressives, but I don’t think it’s a smart talking point,” billionaire investor Mark Cuban said of the attacks. “There’s only 900 of us [billionaires], and I don’t think people on a day-to-day basis are focused on the wealthiest people in the country.”

Cuban, who describes himself as an independent and has been critical of Trump, added, “I’m glad I’m one of the ones being targeted — you know, it’s a good problem to have. But in reality, I don’t think it accomplishes anything.”

Some Democrats worry that exaggerated anti-wealth rhetoric by high-profile members of their party could backfire. The party has come to rely on its own cadre of wealthy donors to provide a critical flow of cash.

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) declined to endorse Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist who won the New York Democratic mayoral primary and is now mayor-elect. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) backed Mamdani at the 11th hour.

And some of the Democrats’ biggest winners on Election Day, including Govs.-elect Abigail Spanberger of Virginia and Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey, presented themselves not as fire-breathing populists, but as bridge-building centrists.

But the anti-billionaire message is resonating in many quarters.

An early sign of a shifting tide may have been this past April’s race for a pivotal seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Musk, who had spent $294 million to boost Trump and other Republicans in 2024, tried for a repeat of sorts by pouring $20 million into the Wisconsin race to elect Republican Brad Schimel.

Democrat Susan Crawford seized on Musk’s involvement and his flashy tactics like giving voters $1 million checks, saying he “was trying to buy a seat on our Supreme Court.” Supporters of both sides poured in money, driving the total cost of the election over $100 million, and Crawford glided to victory.

Robert Pape, director of the Chicago Project on Security and Threats, said the U.S. potentially faces an “era of violent populism” driven both by demographic changes and the dramatic concentration of wealth.

“That creates a feeling that the system isn’t working for any of us,” Pape said. “Ninety percent of America is not happy at all with the status quo, so they are willing, many of them, to think about radical change and accept radical positions even if they are violent.” In a recent Marquette Law School Poll, 66 percent of respondents said the country is on the wrong track and 34 said it is heading in the right direction.

The great majority of Americans tell pollstersthey oppose political or social violence. And there were no signs of physical confrontation at the demonstration in Brookville, where protesters and counterprotesters engaged in a debate that was sometimes angry and sometimes respectful.

In one heated exchange, conservative Mike Wilson, 66, rejected the protestors’ charge that Trump has delivered the government to oligarchs. “It’s not true. Look at the last election,” Wilson said. “More Blacks voted for Trump. The working class, the middle class voted for him. It was the Hollywood elite, the CEOs — they’re all Democrats. They’re the party of the oligarchs.”

Copeland at one point yelled at Wilson, prompting him to say she was being disrespectful, which she in turn found infuriating. “I was raised conservative,” she said, “so I understand where they are coming from. … [But] You’re not working to educate yourself.”

Nearby, anti-Trump demonstrator Taya Abbott, 70, listened carefully as Winters, the conservative truck driver, unspooled his arguments defending the wealthy as necessary to a functioning economy.

Afterward she told him, “We should talk sometime.” Winters answered, “Over dinner and a glass of wine.” Abbott shot back, “Whiskey!”

But the conciliation was short-lived. As Winters walked away, Abbott said, “Nobody is right 100 percent of the time. I can see where he’s coming from. But he’s being screwed and doesn’t know it.”

Read the Billionaire Nation series

About this story

Reporting by Naftali Bendavid and Beth Reinhard. Photography by Michael Swensen and Joshua Lott. Illustration by Tucker Harris. Illustration contains prop paper money.

Design editing by Betty Chavarria. Photo editing by Christine T. Nguyen. Editing by Nick Baumann, Patrick Caldwell and Wendy Galietta. Copy editing by Paola Ruano.

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