Technology sector tycoons were present among the front rows of Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony as president of the United States on Monday, an unprecedented signal of their proximity to the new power.
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Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Apple boss Tim Cook, Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Elon Musk were in the front rows under the dome of the Capitol, where the swearing-in of the new head of state took place.
Striking image, all of them were even in front of all the future ministers of the Trump government, including the next Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.
AFP
Most of these big bosses were also part of the small group, still much smaller than at the Capitol, of guests at the religious ceremony preceding the inauguration.
As for the boss of Open AI, Sam Altman and that of the social network TikTok Shou Chew, they also attended the inauguration ceremony.
The contrast was clear with the first term of Donald Trump, during which the big names of the new economy had carefully kept their distance.
-During the 2016 campaign, Mark Zuckerberg said he was worried about “fearful voices calling to build walls and distance people they see as different”, in reference to candidate Trump’s migratory rhetoric.
Since Donald Trump’s victory in the last presidential election on November 5, the Facebook co-founder has traveled to Florida several times to meet the president-elect.
He said he was “optimistic” about the real estate developer’s second term.
“I think he just wants America to triumph,” he said on host Joe Rogan’s podcast.
Elon Musk contributed $277 million to Donald Trump’s campaign out of his own pocket, and was entrusted with an extragovernmental mission to cut public spending.
Amazon, Google and Apple all have service contracts with the government, as do Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin or Elon Musk’s SpaceX, on which NASA relies heavily to carry out its space program.
Tech giants could also benefit from the government’s regulatory policy, Donald Trump being in favor of a limited framework to encourage growth.
In his last address to the country, outgoing President Joe Biden warned of “an oligarchy [qui] is taking shape in America” and “concretely threatens [la] entire democracy [ses] basic rights and freedoms.
He spoke of the rise of a “technological-industrial complex” with major influence, worrying about “the dangerous concentration of power in the hands of very few ultra-rich people” and the “dangerous consequences if their power is left without limits.
