(Jan 21): A who’s who of the world’s wealthiest people surrounded US President Donald Trump as he took the oath of office — gathering a combined net worth exceeding US$1.3 trillion (RM5.8 trillion) for the occasion.

Seated prominently behind the Trump family for Monday’s swearing-in were the top three individuals on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg. Also spotted inside the Capitol Rotunda for the inaugural ceremony were LVMH chief executive officer and France’s richest man, Bernard Arnault, Alphabet Inc co-founder Sergey Brin, and Las Vegas Sands Corp majority owner Miriam Adelson.

In a telling gesture, the tech billionaires were seated in front of Trump’s nominated Cabinet. Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth had to crane past Musk and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai to watch the proceedings.

“It is important to bring some of the brightest minds in the world together,” Donald Trump Jr said when asked after the ceremony about the presence of tech billionaires. 

The phalanx of deep-pocketed attendees highlighted a surge in support for Trump from Silicon Valley, Wall Street and other industries following his comeback victory in November’s election. At stake for many of their businesses is the promise of relief from US regulations and the hope of a boost to their corporate bottom lines from Trump’s pledge to spur investment. Others are hoping to avoid the worst of the fallout from tariffs that the president has vowed to use as an instrument of economic policy.

Embracing Trump marks a turnabout for some business leaders, who had recoiled from him four years ago following the Jan 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by hundreds of his supporters. Yet Trump’s pariah status faded as odds increased towards his election on a business-friendly message that included an extension of tax cuts enacted in 2017 during his first term in office.

Out of all those present, Musk has put perhaps the most into Trump’s return to the White House. The Tesla Inc CEO spent more than US$200 million of his personal fortune on the president’s campaign, quickly emerging as an influential adviser to Trump and taking a role as the head of a government-efficiency initiative.

Musk also has a lot at stake with the new administration, with reducing government regulation and boosting access to space contracts key for his businesses. After hearing Trump invoke plans during his inaugural address to send US astronauts to Mars, the SpaceX CEO pumped his fists in the air. Colonising Mars has been a long-time ambition of Musk.

Present in the crowd as well were hedge fund billionaire John Paulson, conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch and Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook, who enjoyed a cordial relationship with the president during his first term. On Sunday, during a rally at Capital One Arena on the eve of Trump’s swearing-in, Cook received a shout-out from the incoming president, who said Apple had planned an unspecified investment in the US. 

The billionaires waited in line along with lawmakers and other top officials to head into a celebratory post-inaugural luncheon at the Capitol. At one point, Bezos emerged with his fiancée Lauren Sanchez. Asked for his thoughts on Trump’s speech, Bezos responded: “Oh, I don’t know, I am looking for a restroom.” 

At the luncheon, Cook was seen seated next to incoming Attorney General Pam Bondi, while Bezos sat with Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune. Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia got a photo of herself with Meta’s Zuckerberg.

Since the election, Zuckerberg has openly pivoted the social-media giant to align more closely with Trump and the new Republican majorities in Congress. He has dropped a third-party fact-checking system in the US, following conservative complaints about censorship, and abandoned many of the company’s diversity and inclusion efforts.

 Another closely watched guest was TikTok CEO Shou Chew, whose company’s fate rests in Trump’s hands. The president has promised to issue an executive order sparing the app from a ban that was to have taken effect on Sunday over the refusal by its Chinese parent company, ByteDance Ltd, to divest.

Trump, who initially sought to ban TikTok in his first term, has since found the social media platform to be an effective conduit to young voters and vowed to find a way to cut a deal that would keep it alive. 

Uploaded by Tham Yek Lee