For Trump, Musk and Farage, the message is the same: voters don’t want to be hijacked by billionaires | Rafael Behr

A lesson from the US midterms is that electorates are repelled by the arrogant mega-rich buying democracy. This is a fight Labour can afford to pick

For most people, $224m (168m) is a lot of money, especially if you spend it and get nothing in return. But Elon Musk is richer than most people. In fact, there is no one richer.

As the wealthiest of the US's tech oligarchs Musk could afford to blow huge sums on a failed bid to prop up Republican candidates in Texas, his adoptive home state, in last week's midterm congressional elections. He is reported to have spent a further $250m failing to engineer results in other races.

Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist