WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. presidential inauguration attendees don’t often resemble the annual gathering of the world’s wealthiest in Davos, Switzerland, which began on Monday, but the parallels were hard to ignore as Donald Trump was sworn in as U.S. president.
The world’s richest people attended Trump’s inauguration in Washington on Monday and the glamorous balls that followed to celebrate with the new president.
Among those sitting prominently were three of the world’s richest men: Elon Musk, Amazon (NASDAQ: ) CEO Jeff Bezos and Meta (NASDAQ: ) CEO Mark Zuckerberg, with a combined net worth of nearly $900 billion, according to Forbes.
For some, the presence of the world’s richest represents the pinnacle of Trump’s return to power in Washington after trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to Joseph Biden.
To others, it stands as a warning that the new administration’s priorities in the coming years will favor those with the best connections through tax, labor, trade and other policies. In his farewell address, former President Joseph Biden warned of a growing oligarchy in the United States that threatens democracy.
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, noted a favorable spot for tech CEOs at the inauguration — ahead of Trump’s administration nominees.
Musk, who has spent more than $250 million on Trump’s re-election bid after suggesting a few years ago that he would retire after the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, may be in the best position.
The CEO of Tesla (NASDAQ: him and his companies with Trump in office.
“Some of the business people who sided with Trump represent companies that get a lot of government contracts or are concerned about government regulations,” said Darrell West, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
After Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris in November, a number of CEOs were quick to warm to Trump, particularly Zuckerberg.
Meta has announced that it will suspend fact-checking on its US platform. Zuckerberg sat next to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh at an exclusive inauguration luncheon on Monday, an event attended by Bezos and Apple (NASDAQ: ) CEO Tim Cook, and the Meta CEO also hosted a pre-inaugural ball with other billionaire Republican donors on Monday .
A number of other members of the Forbes list were also in Washington, including LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault and several members of the family, who are the world’s fifth richest; Alphabet (NASDAQ: ) CEO Sundar Pichai, who spoke with Trump over lunch, and Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man.
The connection between business interests and US politics was evident just before Trump took office in a frenzied few days for the popular social media app TikTok.
In 2024, US lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to ban the app in the United States over national security concerns, only to watch Trump put the law on hold as he invited TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew to the inauguration at the last minute.
Trump has floated the idea that the US government could partially own TikTok, while some media outlets have reported that Beijing has discussed Musk somehow taking ownership of TikTok.
“You certainly see the obvious and open involvement of the richest people in the world on his first day in office,” said David Kass, executive director of Americans for Tax Fairness.
