The TOI Correspondent from Washington: The familiar adage goes that a picture is worth a thousand words, but this one added up to nearly $ 1 trillion.
A photo of three of the world’s wealthiest individuals, Elon Musk (current worth $ 434 billion), Jeff Bezos ($240 billion) and Mark Zuckerberg ($ 212 billion), seated in the front row at Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday offered what critics called “the perfect symbol of US plutocracy.”
Stuck between Musk and Bezos in the billionaire’s row was Alphabet/Google’s Indian-American CEO Sundar Pichai, whose paltry $ 1.2 billion wealth is chump change in comparison. Google’s co-founder Sergei Brin (net worth $ 140 billion) was seated elsewhere, as was luxury goods tycoon Bernard Arnault of LVMH (net worth $ 200 billion).
In all, there was more than $ 1.3 trillion in combined wealth concentrated behind Trump with four of the five wealthiest individuals attending the inauguration, CNBC anchor Susan Li noted, adding that the stock value of their companies was more than $ 12 trillion.
Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner breezed across the billionaires row shaking hands with them before the oath-taking ceremony.
“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,” the self-declared socialist Senator Bernie Sanders said in a post.
But as if to illustrate that power from a country with 1.4 billion people also matters, India’s external affairs minister S.Jaishankar was also seated in the front row facing (itals) the oath-taking ceremony, while the mega money was behind (itals) Trump.
Meanwhile, Trump’s MAGA minions were out in the cold in -10c weather after the ceremony was shifted indoors, with late-night comics later mocking them as mugs waiting for a miracle while the uber-rich were lining up to drink from the trough.
Many commentators wondered how a President who so openly reveres wealth could also be a populist who wins elections with votes from a largely poor MAGA base.
In fact, Trump himself has catapulted into the mega-billionaires club with the launch of new crypto token that soared to more than $10 billion in market value on Monday.
Following $TRUMP memecoin, returning First Lady Melania Trump also launched her own cryptocurrency $MELANIA in a social media post Sunday, alarming ethics experts.
Meme coins are a type of highly volatile cryptocurrency inspired by popular internet or cultural trends.The website for the Melania Coin characterizes the cryptocurrency bearing her name as “not financial instruments or investments” and says that they are for “collecting and entertainment purposes only.” But although they carry no intrinsic value, holders can cash in on them.
Trump’s meme coin shows the image of the president holding up his fist with the words, “FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT” – his battle cry after surviving an assassination attempt in July 2024.
Trump’s enthusiasm about generating economic activity and wealth, which critics see as obsession with money, is fairly transparent. In a free-wheeling media interaction in the Oval Office as he was signing executive orders on Monday, questions veered around to North Korea and Gaza. On both, Trump mused about their potential from the perspective of real estate.
“It’s a phenomenal location…on the sea…the best weather!” he raved about Gaza.
