Tech Elites Take Center Stage at Trump Inauguration

Each CEO has much to gain—or lose—from Trump’s decisions as the country’s leader, on everything from antitrust policy to deregulation. Illustrating how close they had been pulled into Trump’s orbit, the group was seated next to Vice President JD Vance, as well as Trump’s family and his cabinet nominees. 

It was a striking example of the power shift in U.S. politics. The former president’s club had never embraced Trump and now they stood in the same room as a new era began in Washington. The power players sitting on the dais add up to more than $12 trillion in market value and more than $1 trillion in global wealth.

Musk and Pichai scrolled their phones as they waited for the event to kickoff. Other tech leaders leaned back to chat with the nearby cabinet nominees. Soon after Trump entered the rotunda, he shook Cook’s hand. Musk smiled and gave a thumbs-up when Trump mentioned going to Mars. 

TikTok CEO Shou Chew was also in attendance, just one day after Trump promised to issue an executive order to keep it functioning. Other big names in the crowd: Bernard Arnault, head of luxury-goods conglomerate LVMH; investor John Paulson; Google co-founder Sergey Brin; and Rupert Murdoch, who holds big stakes in Fox News owner Fox Corp. and Wall Street Journal parent News Corp.

In the first row, watching Trump speak, was former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham, who currently works at the network. Also in the front row hunched over and declining to stand: Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Trump critic who ran for the Democratic nomination for president in 2016 and 2020. 

Joe Rogan, an influential podcaster who endorsed Trump and helped boost his support with young men, was also in the crowd.

Former President Joe Biden and Trump had a brief chat at the beginning of the event. But Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris mostly stayed seated, largely declining to applaud as Trump hammered “America’s decline” under their watch. The other former presidents also didn’t clap for much of the speech.

But Trump’s mention of reinstating the remain-in-Mexico policy, which requires migrants seeking asylum at the southern border to live in northern Mexican border cities during U.S. court proceedings, drew applause from former President George W. Bush, as did a few other remarks. Former President Bill Clinton lightly applauded when Trump criticized cartels. 

When Trump said he planned to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, Hillary Clinton, his 2016 opponent for the White House, appeared to laugh.

Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence, who refused Trump’s demands not to certify the 2020 election and declined to endorse him in the last election, got a standing ovation as he entered the room, alongside another former vice president, Dan Quayle.

The inauguration ended with a moment of community: former President Clinton crossed the aisle to shake hands with Trump family members. 

Elise Dean and Natalie Andrews contributed to this article.