What these techbro assholes don’t get it that cyberpunk is supposed to be a warning. Not a guide.

Because the central guy can't control those corporate entities directly. He primarily wields political power, not financial power. There's a tension between the two.

Musk (financial power) is currently winning out over Steve Bannon (political power). Musk doing that Nazi salute brought a lot of MAGA people underneath him who were otherwise getting worried that Musk was the wrong kind of authoritarian.

Financial power might win in the end, and the reason is that Trump is a doddering old man. This is unique; it's not quite following the same script as Nazi Germany, where Hitler was relatively young and still had the same mental faculties he always did (even if those faculties were twisted).

Yeah, the first Trump term was the cutesy "let's get a lil richer u guys" stuff. This is the real shit. The first purges of the past often didn't involve death--just shoving out academics, government employees, disloyal party members, etc.

Sure, they'll privatize what they can, but they need a way to keep those corporate entities in line. They don't want to give up their own power, and their power lies in their position in government. If they go too far, they risk being thrown under the bus themselves. They'll need to leave the treasury intact, at least, along with some kind of enforcement arm. Maybe we'll see some drastic restructuring of the military soon.