Every oligarch is wealthy or powerful, but not every wealthy person is an oligarch. That distinction, according to a retired American diplomat writing in American Thinker, is one the media and political pundits routinely blur — usually to the benefit of one political tribe and the detriment of another.
Stephen Helgesen, who spent 25 years in the foreign service across 30 countries under four administrations, uses a recent controversy involving Donald Trump Jr. as his entry point. He describes how the term “oligarch” gets tossed around freely whenever the wealthy and powerful in question happen to live in Russia — in this case, Umar Kremlev, who reportedly gave Trump Jr. and his new wife a wedding present of a couple of extra honeymoon days in the Bahamas.
The media reaction, Helgesen writes, treated the gift as evidence that the president’s son is now “in the pocket” of the Kremlin and will do its bidding — all over a present he characterizes as pricier than a kitchen appliance but hardly transformative.
The Comparison Helgesen Draws
Helgesen’s counterexample is Hunter Biden. Over just a couple of years, he writes, Hunter amassed upwards of $2 million from the Ukrainian oil and natural gas company Burisma, ostensibly for service to an industry he knew nothing about. He cites Hunter’s own 2019 admission to ABC News that he “probably” would not have obtained the Burisma position if his last name had not been Biden.
That admission, in the author’s framing, is far more damaging than any wedding gift — yet it never earned Hunter the oligarch label in the same press quarters.
The piece then poses what Helgesen calls the all-important question: is it a crime for a civilian to be friends with powerful, wealthy people who might be inclined to give that person a gift? His answer is a flat no. If it were, he argues, half the political hangers-on in Washington and other developed-world capitals would probably be behind bars. Even so, he concedes that the well-heeled developed world cannot hold a candle to the third world, which he says has elevated corruption, graft, pay-for-play and quid pro quo to an art form.
Trump Jr. and Hunter Biden, in his estimation, are small potatoes compared to the men behind the thrones of African, Asian and Latin American leaders. But he argues they do represent a new generation of unapologetic influencers with no problem publicly displaying their newly gotten gains.
Grifters, Grafters, and the Pretender Class
Helgesen then works through definitions the media tends to collapse. Grifting, he notes, is usually defined as making money through deception, manipulation, dubious schemes and by exploiting trust. Grafting generally refers to using public office, political influence or an official position for personal financial gain. While it might be tempting to treat grifters, grafters and oligarchs as one and the same, he insists they are different — and that this difference is what pundits routinely ignore when they throw all of them into the same trough of corruption.
At some point, he writes, it becomes hard to tell real grifters and grafters from those who are merely comfortable nibbling at the edges of the power structure. They can be fierce competitors, idealists with an axe to grind, or simply people who hunger for power and access and will do anything to grab the brass ring.
These figures, he says, make up an entire pretender class. Their stock in trade is currying favor and sidling up to real power brokers by exaggerating their abilities and overpromising on their deliverables. Some, like Hunter Biden, just cite their familial relationships to get a foot in the door.
The über-wealthy, Helgesen observes, have always been able to glide seamlessly in and out of their own orbits and into those of people holding powerful government positions. Sometimes they use wealth to seduce, intimidate or coerce their targets; sometimes they employ soft power to achieve their objectives.
What About American Billionaires?
From there the essay turns the question back on the United States. Should Americans regard their own tech billionaires — those attempting to reinforce their positions or corner markets for their technologies — as oligarchs? What about wealthy philanthropists who champion causes: Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffett? Must they be regarded as oligarchs because they want to introduce new business models or change tech paradigms, or, Helgesen asks pointedly, is it just the Russians who qualify?
His answer to how the media handles this is blunt: if you listen to the press, it is definitely the rich Russians like Kremlev who are oligarchs, and definitely the Trump family that are grifters.
Helgesen argues we should not be too quick to point fingers at only one group for exercising a system as old as money itself. He points out that Western Europe has plenty of “oligarchs” of its own — figures who advocate for their industries or causes through charitable donations and wield influence directed at politicians and the EU. In Denmark, where he now lives, he notes there are seven billionaires whose combined wealth is around $55 billion.
The Real Line Between Rich and Oligarch
For Helgesen, the difference between being a rich man and being an oligarch comes down to three things: the political system in which influence is introduced, the intentions of the influencer, and the methods employed. He argues that we can justify influence exercised “by the rules” in a democratic system where gifts and bequests can be taxed and reported — while happily condemning it when it happens behind the scenes in a non-democratic system. Some of us, he concludes, might be inclined to call that hypocrisy.
The essay lands as a pointed rejoinder to a press cycle that, in the author’s view, applies the oligarch label with a partisan thumb on the scale. Whether readers accept his framing or not, his central question — when does a rich man become an oligarch, and who gets to decide? — is one the political class rarely answers with any consistency.
Source: www.americanthinker.com — https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2026/09/those-poor-maligned-rich/