Trump’s Inauguration Invites Are Huge Middle Finger to Biden
Donald Trump has fired a defiant riposte to Joe Biden’s parting warning that a tech titan oligarchy is threatening America’s democracy.
The president-elect has invited the world’s wealthiest billionaires to join his family and former U.S. presidents in prime positions on the dais for Monday’s inauguration ceremony.
Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman, and Shou Zi Chew will take pride of place outside the Capitol in a clear show of money power behind the new administration.
Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai is also expected to attend, according to Reuters. Unknown yet is whether Apple boss and Trump ally Tim Cook will sit with his fellow billionaires. But David Sacks, the incoming White House AI and crypto “czar” who is close to Musk and Vice President-elect JD Vance, will be in the VIP seats on Monday.
The move is being seen as Trump snubbing his nose at Biden’s doomsday threats about an “oligarchy” using their billions to subjugate the lives of ordinary Americans.
The president used his farewell speech on Wednesday to warn of a “tech industrial complex” that is trampling over ordinary Americans’ rights.
“Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead,” he said, pointing to “a dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a few ultra-wealthy people and the dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left unchecked.”
Stephen Miller, Trump’s incoming deputy chief of staff for policy, accused Biden of running an “administration of oligarchies” by forcing large corporations to censor free speech and violate 1st Amendment rights, quoting the decision by social media to de-platform Trump.
Miller told Fox News that Trump was working with the tech titans to “restore democracy” rather than threaten it. Trump is working with the platforms to get a “competitive edge” against the rest of the world, he added.
A transition official added that the message Trump is sending by including the new power elite in the inauguration is that they represent the importance of job creation in the new administration.
“I think the message it sends is, first, the importance of free speech,' said the official.
‘And then that these are all huge job creators in this country and they will be a big part of where the president goes in the second term,” the official told the Daily Mail. It’s wrong to think of these as just tech guys. An app like TikTok helps thousands of content creators make a living, for example.”
The titans, most of whom were opposed to Trump in his first term, have been making a pilgrimage to pay fealty to the president-elect at his Mar-a-Lago throne of power over the last few weeks.
“Jeff Bezos came, Bill Gates came. Mark Zuckerberg came. Many of them came numerous times. The bankers have all come. Everybody is coming,” Trump said last week.
Amazon founder Bezos, owner of The Washington Post, and Facebook’s Zuckerberg have embraced Trump, both donating $1 million to the inauguration.
AI billionaire Altman will be on the dais along with a surprise invite, TikTok chief executive Chew, days before a planned U.S. ban on the Chinese platform.
“In my first term it felt like everyone was against me,” Trump told reporters recently. “Now in this term everyone wants to be my friend.”
It’s an incredible about-face for Silicon Valley, with big tech becoming increasingly critical of Biden.
Zuckerberg recently told Joe Rogan he intends to present a more “masculine energy” and that he was not interested in “culturally neutered” corporate America.
Bezos will be front and center despite previously feuding with Trump, having shown his new colors by blocking his Washington Post’s planned endorsement of Kamala Harris before the election.
OpenAI CEO Altman—who made a personal $1 million contribution to Trump’s inauguration rather than through his company—has made no secret of his support. “President Trump will lead our country into the age of AI, and I am eager to support his efforts to ensure America stays ahead,” he said in a statement.
Chew’s invite was more of a surprise considering Trump’s previous antipathy towards TikTok over claims the platform was a Chinese spying tool. But the president-elect has smoothed a path for the ban to be given a rain check and ultimately shelved.