In a stark demonstration of whose presence Donald Trump most values, billionaire tech leaders including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai enjoyed prime seating during his inauguration on Monday. But while those men, as well as Tesla founder Elon Musk, podcaster Joe Rogan, and pundits Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham enjoyed a plum view of the President’s swearing-in and subsequent speech, several red state governors and other elected officials were shuffled off to an overflow room to watch the proceedings on a big-screen TV.
It’s no surprise that the men behind Facebook, Amazon, and the phone you’re likely reading this on were seated close to Donald Trump. At the traditional pre-inauguration church service at St. John’s Episcopal Church Monday, Zuckerberg, Cook, and Bezos were seated in a pew just behind Trump and his family. (Bezos’s fiancee, Lauren Sánchez, was reportedly seated further back during the service, sharing a row with former British prime minister Boris Johnson.)
That united front continued at the Capitol Rotunda, with a church-skipping Musk joining the group. Even Rogan, whose wealth and power is arguably dwarfed by the CEOs in the room, had a spot in the room where it happened.
The same can’t be said for supportive Republican governors such as Mike Braun of Indiana, Glenn Youngkin of Virginia, and Mississippi’s Tate Reeves. Those men, as well as Trump loyalist and unsuccessful Arizona political candidate Kari Lake were reportedly relegated to Emancipation Hall, where they watched the event on TV like the rest of us. Also kept out of the VIP section: Florida governor and Trump-opponent-turned-supporter Ron DeSantis, Georgia governor Brian Kemp. Meanwhile, and New York’s embattled mayor Eric Adams posed for photos with YouTubers Jake and Logan Paul, who were also seated in Emancipation Hall, along with another powerful tech figure: OpenAI’s Sam Altman.
The presence of Bezos, Zuckerberg and company front and center speaks to the tech realignment under way as Trump returns to the White House. In perhaps the most notable elevation, TikTok CEO Shou Chew was seated in the Rotunda just behind Trump, in a spot some might characterize as the best in the room. Trump, who unsuccessfully attempted to ban TikTok in 2020 via executive order, changed position in March, saying then that shutting down the app would “make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people.”
But with Chew and Zuckerberg seated close by—the leaders of the states that eagerly elected him off on the sidelines—it’s clear that, as the 47th president said in his inaugural speech, that a tide of change is truly sweeping the country.
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