Associated Press
Some of the most exclusive seats at President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday were reserved for powerful tech CEOs who also happen to be among the world’s richest men.
That’s a shift from tradition, especially for a president who has characterized himself as a champion of the working class. Seats so close to the President are usually reserved for the President’s family, past presidents and other honored guests.
Photos show the tech CEOs mingling with several of Trump’s picks for the Cabinet, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary and Marco Rubio as Secretary of State.
In one image, Rubio looks on from the background, facing a lineup of tech’s wealthiest leaders. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, stand beside Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and his fiancee, Lauren Sánchez, along with Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Elon Musk, one of Trump’s closest advisers. The world’s wealthiest person, Musk also runs Tesla, SpaceX and the social platform X.
Also at the Capitol for the day’s events were Apple CEO Tim Cook and TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew.
The mega-rich have long had a prominent role in national politics, and several billionaires helped bankroll the campaign of Trump’s Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. Biden recently gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to George Soros, a billionaire donor to liberal causes.
But the inaugural display highlights the unusually direct role the world’s wealthiest people will likely have in the new administration. In his outgoing address, then-President Joe Biden warned that the U.S. was becoming an oligarchy of tech billionaires wielding dangerous levels of power and influence on the nation.
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Republished with permission from The Associated Press.
12 comments
PeterH
January 20, 2025 at 2:49 pm
Viewing America’s middle class and poor in the rear view mirror ……Let the large scale grifting commence!
TJC
January 20, 2025 at 2:51 pm
Shitshow 2 starts today!
Peachy
January 20, 2025 at 3:15 pm
Yet you never said a word when
the Demos chum it up with the Hollywood elites, entertainers, and all the lib CEO’s.
JD
January 20, 2025 at 3:22 pm
When exactly did that happen again? Just so we can properly analyze your statement, or is this more empty rhetoric?
Care to provide some concrete examples of the billionaire class from the last administration or the ones before? Anything remotely on this scale? This oligarchy is a first, yet Republicans have been screaming about elites on the cesspool of Twitter ever since Biden’s inauguration.
It is classic deflection. Your group is guilty of doing exactly what you accuse others of.
Peachy
January 20, 2025 at 3:58 pm
Tom Seyer and George Soros just to name a couple.
JD
January 20, 2025 at 4:05 pm
Are you sure those are facts? Tom Steyer spoke at the 2012 Democratic convention, but neither he nor George Soros were appointees, advisors, or tied to inaugurations. Meanwhile, Trump’s inauguration was stacked with billionaires heading straight into cabinet roles. Nice try, but that’s a false equivalency.
You are repeating Twitter Fake-Alpha-Bro nonsense and FoxNews Conspiracies. Are you sure you were at NATO?
JD
January 20, 2025 at 3:24 pm
Careful, your hypocrisy slip is showing along with your projectism bloomers.
PeterH
January 20, 2025 at 3:48 pm
??? tell me how these billionaires will lower food prices or create middle income jobs for American workers?
Peachy
January 20, 2025 at 3:56 pm
Really? How many people build cars for Tesla? How many people work for Amazon?
JD
January 20, 2025 at 4:11 pm
Tesla employs around 140,000 people globally, and Amazon boasts about 1.1 million workers in the U.S.—roughly 0.33% of the U.S. population. Amazon’s average fulfillment worker earns $45,760 annually, while Tesla production workers make about $36,254. Meanwhile, raising a family of four in the U.S. requires about $86,000 a year. So, yeah, many workers at these companies fall short. But hey, at least they can watch their billionaire bosses’ rockets soar while figuring out how to stretch their paychecks.
Oh look. Math again.
Ocean Joe
January 20, 2025 at 4:09 pm
Listen, while you guys squabble I’m going to go fill my car with free gas, and head over to the Gulf of America, to dip my toes in the water and enjoy the Golden Age and buy some Trump and Melania bitcoin.
Peachy
January 20, 2025 at 5:56 pm
Thanks for the humor Ocean. It’s good to laugh every once in a while. 😄