In a striking sign of how far right the tech sector has swung, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg will both have seats of honor at President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday—and Zuckerberg will host a black-tie ball to honor Trump with Republican megadonor Miriam Adelson.
The news, first reported by Puck and NBC News, caps weeks of unsubtle realignment at Zuckerberg’s Meta and Bezos’s Amazon. Earlier this month, Zuckerberg announced that his companies, which include Facebook and Instagram, will no longer fact-check user content, screen out many kinds of hate speech and slurs, or work to diversify their overwhelmingly male workforce. Bezos, meanwhile, has axed DEI programs at Amazon and, in October, controversially blocked The Washington Post from publishing an endorsement of then-presidential hopeful Kamala Harris. (Bezos says that politics did not influence that decision.)
Other tech titans are also flocking to Trump’s inauguration—and to his political movement more generally. The leaders of companies including Google, Microsoft, Uber, Apple, OpenAI and Coinbase chipped in millions of dollars to fund inaugural parades and parties. Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel will host a pre-inauguration party, the Washington Post reports, as will barons of the crypto industry. And several notable tech bros will serve official roles in Trump’s administration, including the venture capitalist David Sacks and the billionaire X and Tesla owner Elon Musk. Musk, Zuckerberg and Bezos, in particular, will all sit on Trump’s inaugural dais next week, alongside his Cabinet picks and other elected officials. There’s no word on whether their respective spouses are attending, and Zuckerberg’s wife—the philanthropist Priscilla Chan—is not listed as a co-host on Zuck’s gala invitation.
All this ring-kissing and public pomp mark a stark departure for Silicon Valley, which has traditionally served as a Democratic stronghold—and largely shunned Trump before his first term. But a lot has changed in the past eight years, for both Trump and corporate America. For one thing, tech CEOs have learned that the president-elect tends to favor companies with whom he has personal relationships, inspiring many to cozy up. For another thing, President Joe Biden alienated some prominent tech leaders with his antitrust and oversight policies, creating an opening for Republicans.
Tech executives, business leaders and other big donors have now donated so much money to Trump’s record-breaking inaugural fund that it has literally run out of gala tickets and seats at the inaugural address for VIP donors, the New York Times reports. (Per Common Cause, a nonpartisan watchdog group: “This is not normal.”) And even ahead of the inauguration, a steady stream of business and tech leaders have made pilgrimages to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, to Trump’s apparent glee. “Jeff Bezos came. Bill Gates came. Mark Zuckerberg came. Many of them came numerous times,” the president-elect enthused last week. “The bankers have all come. Everybody is coming.”