Trump’s Billionaire Arbitrage

Elon Musk, Sundar Pichai, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg
Trump’s diminished opponents don’t have much to work with these days. But flanked by Bezos and Zuck and Musk, the new president gifted them an image to use, if they so choose: a government of the wealthy, by the wealthy, for the wealthy. Photo: Julia Demaree Nikhinson - Pool/Getty Images
Peter Hamby
January 21, 2025

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Watching CNN’s coverage of Donald Trump’s inauguration this morning, I was struck by the social hierarchy of the procession into the Capitol Rotunda, a grand neoclassical dome that has never housed more Botox or male eye lifts than it did on Monday. Among the first to trickle in were various MAGA dignitaries and paunchy donors, followed by senators and members of Congress, John Fetterman in his shorts, Tim Burchett in his usual Carhartt barn jacket. On Twitter/X, I saw that the Nelk Boys were riding over on a bus with Theo Von, Conor McGregor, and Jake and Logan Paul, posting content all the while. But Dana Bash brought my eyes back to the television when she interrupted Jake Tapper to point out the gaggle of tech billionaires who had moved in to take their seats just behind Trump’s family, only feet from the incoming president’s podium. “I’m sorry to cut you off Jake, but some of these tech giants and their spouses are sitting in front of Trump’s cabinet,” she said. “They have better seats than the people who are going to run Trump’s administration!”