https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald ... rcna187642Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg will attend President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration Monday, according to an official involved with planning the event. They will have a prominent spot at the ceremony, seated together on the platform with other notable guests, including Trump’s Cabinet nominees and elected officials. Musk said on X that he was “honored” to have such a prominent spot at the inauguration. The three tech titans have all tried to earn favor with Trump in the past year, led by Musk’s donating more than a quarter-billion dollars in campaign funds to help elect Trump. Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX — and the co-lead of a new Trump administration advisory body called the Department of Government Efficiency — has frequently been at Trump’s side since he endorsed him for president in July.
Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, this month reshuffled his lobbying staff and his content moderation policies to align with the incoming Republican administration. Meta also gave $1 million to the Trump inaugural fund. Zuckerberg is co-hosting a black-tie reception Monday with Republican megadonor Miriam Adelson to celebrate the inauguration, according to two people familiar with the event who were not authorized to speak publicly. Puck News first reported the event. Bezos, the founder of Amazon and its executive chair, decided last fall that The Washington Post, which he owns, would not endorse in the presidential race, overruling opinion staff members who wanted to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris. Amazon also contributed $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund. The three men are among the wealthiest people in the world, with fortunes based on the tech boom of the past two decades.
Musk ranks No. 1, Bezos No. 2 and Zuckerberg No. 3, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Their combined net worth: $885 billion as of Monday, according to Bloomberg. A representative for Meta declined to comment. Representatives for Musk and Bezos did not immediately respond to requests for comment. All three men have supported Democrats and Republicans over the years, according to federal records. They have a significant amount at stake in Trump's second term, not only because of potential tax and trade policy changes but also because of issues specific to their businesses. Meta faces a possible antitrust trial as soon as April over allegations from the Federal Trade Commission that it acted illegally to maintain a monopoly on personal social networks. Amazon is a major federal contractor through its cloud computing business, which was a source of conflict with Trump during his first term.
SpaceX is a major federal contractor through its rocket launches and internet service business, Starlink. Musk, Zuckerberg and Bezos are frequent rivals in the tech industry, competing for influence on subjects such as artificial intelligence, space exploration and media. Bezos is trying to compete with Musk’s dominance in rocket launches with his space company, Blue Origin, which on Monday called off its inaugural launch attempt. Zuckerberg and Musk are longtime rivals in AI research, and they are both pouring billions of dollars into new AI models. In 2022, Musk also started competing with Zuckerberg on social media when he bought X, which was then Twitter. Bezos and Zuckerberg compete through the dueling advertising and shopping businesses of Amazon and Meta.
Trump's inauguration is Monday, January 20, 2025.
1We didn't vote for him, but he'll be the next US president on Monday the 20th. We can bitch and moan about Trump and his policies as much as we bitch and moan about Newsom, Abbott and other politicians of both political parties. That's the American way.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan
