Emphasizing just how close Silicon Valley has grown to President Donald Trump, a phalanx of billionaires and tech CEOs conspicuously crowded the stage Monday as the Republican was sworn in for his second term.
Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan Zuckerberg; Elon Musk; Sundar Pichai; and Jeff Bezos and his partner, Lauren Sánchez, stood together inside the U.S. Capitol. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Trump’s nominee for secretary of State, could be seen with them.
Perhaps nobody embodies the fusion of Silicon Valley with Washington like Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, nominees to head the new Department of Government Efficiency. Musk, who donated more than $250 million to Trump’s campaign, is reportedly residing in a cottage at the president’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
The occasion was not without visible awkwardness, as when Apple CEO Tim Cook stood unsmiling in front of pharma executive and onetime GOP presidential hopeful Ramaswamy and beside South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security.
The oligarchs gather & so starts the looting of America. pic.twitter.com/5EXdYyfwZG
— Senator Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) January 20, 2025
State Sen. Scott Wiener weighed in on the optics. “The oligarchs gather & so starts the looting of America,” he tweeted.
The sight of so many former Trump critics coming into the fold wasn’t the weekend’s only peculiar visual. At a pre-inauguration rally Sunday, the Village People, a 1970s and ’80s disco quintet known for campy costumes and homoerotic lyrics, performed their hit “Y.M.C.A.” Trump is known to be a fan of the song — although he dances to it by pumping his arms, not forming the letters of the title.
Overall, Monday’s scene telegraphed unity among many of the nation’s wealthiest executives — although the infighting may have already begun. Ramaswamy has allegedly been pushed out of DOGE by people close to Musk and will now mount a campaign to become governor of Ohio.
Further, Musk’s desire to cozy up to Trump may not be reciprocated through the administration’s policies. Musk is the CEO of Tesla, and a directive to roll back Biden administration mandates on electric vehicles is expected to be among the executive orders Trump signs.