{"id":13735,"date":"2025-01-20T22:45:26","date_gmt":"2025-01-20T22:45:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=13735"},"modified":"2025-01-20T22:45:26","modified_gmt":"2025-01-20T22:45:26","slug":"billionaires-line-up-for-donald-trumps-inauguration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=13735","title":{"rendered":"billionaires line up for Donald Trump\u2019s inauguration"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description\">Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the world<\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=52ca150d-35c9-4a73-a366-f5b323fcf2a4&amp;newsletter-id=65b8fec772badb00166eafc6\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>Days after Donald Trump last took office in 2017, Google co-founder Sergey Brin joined a protest against the new administration\u2019s immigration policies, warning they threatened the US\u2019s \u201cfundamental values\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, he joined more than a dozen billionaires in the prime seats at Trump\u2019s second inauguration, applauding a man who has pledged to deport millions of migrants, to use the levers of American justice to pursue political opponents and to launch sweeping tariffs. <\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/8e507320-d381-41b0-9513-cc97e2e9d4e9\" data-trackable=\"link\">inauguration ceremony<\/a> in the US Capitol underscored the president\u2019s deepening ties to titans of industry and the shifting stances of business leaders who previously scorned him. Four of the world\u2019s five richest men were placed more prominently than members of his own cabinet, with some of their spouses occupying seats at the expense of governors and members of congress.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/stream\/fdf71598-69ee-4801-a704-df53f01ef286\" data-trackable=\"link\">Elon Musk<\/a>, a former Joe Biden supporter who spent a quarter-of-a-billion dollars getting <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/donald-trump\" data-trackable=\"link\">Trump<\/a> elected, was joined on the crowded dais by Meta\u2019s Mark Zuckerberg, who this month abolished fact-checking on his social media platforms in a peace offering to Trump, and Amazon\u2019s Jeff Bezos, who stopped his newspaper\u2019s editorial board endorsing Kamala Harris.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"n-content-image n-content-image--full\" data-component=\"image-set\"><picture><source media=\"(min-width: 700px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/ftcms%3Ab44df303-89cf-452f-adae-c3549829618b?source=next-article&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=700&amp;dpr=1 1x,https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/ftcms%3Ab44df303-89cf-452f-adae-c3549829618b?source=next-article&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=700&amp;dpr=2 2x\" width=\"1737\" height=\"1158\"\/><source media=\"(max-width: 490px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/ftcms%3Add3f42eb-d43f-401b-a3db-57a12f98bc88?source=next-article&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=490&amp;dpr=1 1x,https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/ftcms%3Add3f42eb-d43f-401b-a3db-57a12f98bc88?source=next-article&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=490&amp;dpr=2 2x\" width=\"1393\" height=\"1392\"\/><\/picture><figcaption class=\"n-content-picture__caption\"><span>Former presidents Bill Clinton, left, and George W Bush, right, attended along with former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, centre<\/span><span> <!-- -->\u00a9 Shawn Thew\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Metres away were Europe\u2019s wealthiest man Bernard Arnault, head of the LVMH luxury goods empire, India\u2019s Mukesh Ambani, and Apple chief executive Tim Cook, who like other tech chief executives, had donated $1mn to Trump in the lead-up to the proceedings. They joined cabinet nominees who are billionaires in their own right, including commerce secretary pick Howard Lutnick and Treasury nominee Scott Bessent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe man is power,\u201d said Lutnick of Trump in a speech on Monday at the Capital One arena, where the president\u2019s supporters gathered to watch him being sworn in. \u201cHe is power.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Lutnick was followed by Musk, who received thunderous applause when he promised to help Trump usher in a \u201cgolden age\u201d. The billionaire also made two straight-armed gestures to the crowd that were likened by many observers to a fascist salute. <\/p>\n<p>In a sign of Musk\u2019s growing power and influence, the crowd also cheered his reference to Trump\u2019s pledge to send astronauts to Mars \u2014 a move that would benefit Musk\u2019s SpaceX, and one that has been deemed wasteful and unnecessary by scientists within the US government.<\/p>\n<p>Such displays of corporate power have been lambasted by some members of Trump\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/6c2f4485-b4ac-4cb0-b3f7-dac55b04d685\" data-trackable=\"link\">core \u2018Maga\u2019 support base<\/a>. Steve Bannon, Trump\u2019s former chief strategist, hit out at Musk and the tech moguls in the president\u2019s orbit this week, echoing Biden in calling them \u201coligarchs\u201d and claiming they were \u201ccreated by the Democratic Party and the lords of easy money\u201d.<\/p>\n<div class=\"n-content-layout\" data-component=\"flourish\" data-component-id=\"21241699\" data-component-type=\"flourish-in-article\">\n<figure class=\"n-content-picture n-content-layout__container\"><a href=\"#21241699\"><picture data-asset-type=\"flourish\" data-flourish-id=\"21241699\" data-flourish-type=\"visualisation\">\n<div id=\"21241699\" class=\"cp-message o-message o-message--inform o-message--notice\" data-o-component=\"o-message\">\n<div class=\"o-message__container\">\n<div class=\"o-message__content\">\n<p class=\"o-message__content-main\">Some content could not load. Check your internet connection or browser settings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/https%3A%2F%2Fpublic.flourish.studio%2Fvisualisation%2F21241699%2Fthumbnail%3FcacheBuster%3D965228?source=cp-content-pipeline&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=1020&amp;dpr=1\" alt=\"\"\/><\/picture><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Democrats were also quick to use the spectacle at the inauguration to undermine Trump\u2019s populist credentials, with the Democratic National Committee claiming that by \u201cleaving his own supporters literally out in the cold while billionaires worth over $1tn got a front-row seat\u201d the president was showing he would always \u201cput himself and his ultra-wealthy backers ahead of the American people\u201d.<\/p>\n<aside aria-labelledby=\"aside-label\" class=\"n-content-recommended--single-story n-content-recommended--inset\" data-component=\"recommended\">\n<p class=\"n-content-recommended__title\">Recommended<\/p>\n<div class=\"o-teaser o-teaser--article o-teaser--small o-teaser--stacked o-teaser--has-image o-teaser--opinion js-teaser\" data-id=\"e5acf9fc-05de-4486-8f80-8783b6466422\">\n<div class=\"o-teaser__image-container js-teaser-image-container\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/e5acf9fc-05de-4486-8f80-8783b6466422\" data-trackable=\"image-link\" tabindex=\"-1\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"o-teaser__image-placeholder\" style=\"aspect-ratio:2026\/1140\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"o-teaser__image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2F__origami%2Fservice%2Fimage%2Fv2%2Fimages%2Fraw%2Fhttps%253A%252F%252Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net%252Fproduction%252Fb2011cd4-9fd7-40c7-8739-47cd1dc3313d.jpg%3Fsource%3Dnext-article%26fit%3Dscale-down%26quality%3Dhighest%26width%3D700%26dpr%3D1?source=next&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;dpr=2&amp;width=240\" alt=\"President Donald Trump and Melania Trump during the inauguration\"\/><\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Inside the Capital One Arena on Monday, where Trump supporters had gathered to watch the inauguration after it was moved indoors, the presence of the billionaires \u2014 seen by many of the Maga faithful as supplicants, rather than puppet masters \u2014 was largely welcomed.<\/p>\n<p>Minnesota farmer Cherry Fiedler said she hoped the tech billionaires\u2019 prominence meant \u201call the censorship will be gone\u201d, and predicted diversity, equity and inclusion policies would also be axed at the world\u2019s biggest companies in the wake of Trump\u2019s win.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo many of those business leaders used to be\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009against Trump,\u201d Paul Kirby, an accountant from Missouri who had travelled to Washington for the ceremony, added. \u201cAll those leaders are basically bending the knee\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009[Trump is] in control, he\u2019s got the power back.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/52ca150d-35c9-4a73-a366-f5b323fcf2a4\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":13736,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}