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Sharing a photograph of tech billionaires Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos at Donald Trump's inauguration as US President, Senator Bernie Sanders has alleged that the "billionaire class now controls our government".
CEOs of tech giants were given prime positions at the inauguration event of the new President, a clear demonstration of their influence on US politics.
Tesla CEO and X boss Elon Musk, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook and his Google counterpart Sundar Pichai were among those who got prime seats at the event. Google co-founder Sergey Brin and X CEO Linda Yaccarino were present too. Musk, Bezos and Zuckerberg are the world's three richest people, according to Forbes. Brin ranks seventh.
When I started talking about Oligarchy, many people didn't understand what I meant.
Well, that's changed.
When the 3 wealthiest men in America sit behind Trump at his inauguration, everyone understands that the billionaire class now controls our government.
We must fight… pic.twitter.com/NuC3hnskQi
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) January 20, 2025
"When I started talking about Oligarchy, many people didn't understand what I meant. Well, that's changed. When the 3 wealthiest men in America sit behind Trump at his inauguration, everyone understands that the billionaire class now controls our government. We must fight back," Sanders posted on X, with a photo that showed Zuckerberg, Yaccarino, Bezos, Pichai and Musk. Sanders, the longest serving US senator, is known to be aligned with Democrats on key issues.
US tech bosses have tried to court favour with Trump over the weeks following his election. This is a marked shift from their response to his first term as President.
In the run-up to the election, Trump had threatened Zuckerberg with life imprisonment is Meta 'plotted' against him in the polls. The aftermath of the election, however, has seen the Meta boss align the company's policies with Trump's conservative stands.
Musk has made huge donations to Trump's campaign and amplified pro-Trump voices on X.
Bezos, who owns The Washington Post, sparked a massive row when he blocked the newspaper's planned endorsement of Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris for the 2024 election.
The tech billionaire's outreach to new President comes against the backdrop of the massive business interests at stake. Musk's SpaceX is a major government contractor, Amazon's AWS cloud computing division and Google work with the US government too. Google, Meta, Apple and Amazon are also fighting antitrust lawsuits from the US government.
"These are very wealthy people who have basically paid for access, which is something that they would do for any upcoming administration even if we all recognise Trump is very transactional," Andrew Selepak, a media professor at the University of Florida, told news agency AFP. "They're making sure it's very clear that their faces, names, and especially their money, is here," he added.