Donald Trump was inaugurated as the President of the United States for a second term on Monday, with a notable presence of influential business and technology leaders witnessing the event.
Among those in attendance were prominent figures such as Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, who has invested hundreds of millions into Trump’s campaign. Other notable attendees included Jeff Bezos, executive chairman of Amazon; Tim Cook, CEO of Apple; Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI; Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta; and Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google. Musk, Zuckerberg, Pichai, and Bezos were seated on the inaugural platform alongside various cabinet appointees and political figures.
TikTok’s CEO Shou Chew was also seen at the Capitol Rotunda following Trump’s announcement that he would lift a recent ban on the app. Many of these business leaders have contributed to Trump’s inaugural committee, with Zuckerberg recently implementing changes at Meta that appear to cater to conservative interests. Additionally, media mogul Rupert Murdoch was present.
The alignment between Silicon Valley and the cultural MAGA-verse was evident at the inauguration. Dana White, president of UFC and a new member of Meta’s board, was among the attendees as well. Podcaster Theo Von, who has gained popularity among young male voters in right-wing circles, also represented this growing digital ecosystem. Joe Rogan attended, too—he had previously interviewed Trump and Zuckerberg on his podcast.
The event also featured longstanding luxury industry leaders like members of the Arnault family, who oversee brands such as Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior. Vivek Ramaswamy, a pharmaceutical entrepreneur turned Republican politician who is rumoured to be leaving his position to run for governor of Ohio, was also in attendance.
Corporate responses to the inauguration began to emerge online, with messages from Pichai, Cook, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg congratulating Trump on X. Musk was particularly active on social media, posting or sharing at least eleven times about the inauguration by late afternoon.