Trump Inauguration Attendees’ Combined Net Worth Exceeds $1 Trillion, Featuring the World’s Wealthiest | Money News
President Donald Trump’s inauguration was notably characterized by the presence of influential figures from Silicon Valley.
Among those easily recognized were the three wealthiest individuals in the world – Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg. This doesn’t even include several billionaires who were not in direct view of the cameras.
Collectively, the wealth of billionaire tech founders, multimillionaire business individuals, and affluent politicians amounted to over $1 trillion – more than a thousand billion – assembled in the Capitol rotunda on that Monday morning.
Holding the top spot on the Forbes real-time billionaires list was Elon Musk, the wealthiest of them all.
The South African entrepreneur derives his wealth from his ventures in the electric vehicle company Tesla and the aerospace manufacturer SpaceX.
Forbes estimates his net worth at $433.9 billion.
Following Musk is Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, who has a net worth of $239.4 billion thanks to his shares in the company.
Bezos’ ownership stake in The Washington Post sparked speculation regarding his influence on the paper’s decision to remain neutral in endorsing a candidate for the first time in 36 years during the recent US election.
In third place on the Forbes list is Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, whose net worth is $211.8 billion.
His company owns major social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
Amid shifting political dynamics, Meta recently made the decision to scale back its fact-checking.
While Larry Ellison, the world’s fourth-richest individual, was absent, the fifth wealthiest, Bernard Arnault, was present with his family.
The French luxury mogul, whose company LVMH owns prestigious brands such as Dior, Louis Vuitton, Moet & Chandon, and Sephora, has a fortune estimated by Forbes at $181.3 billion.
Less known in the UK, but still immensely wealthy, is Miriam Adelson, whose family ranks 55th on the global wealth list by Forbes.
Their net worth of $31.9 billion comes from the casino industry. Her late husband, Sheldon Adelson, was the founder of the Las Vegas Sands corporation.
A known supporter of the new president, Ms. Adelson received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Trump in 2018.
Ranked 89th on the Forbes rich list is media mogul Rupert Murdoch, valued at $22.2 billion.
Murdoch’s Fox network enjoys a close relationship with the US president, though he built a significant part of his fortune in the UK through acquisitions like The Times and The Sun newspapers.
In addition to Fox, he also owns The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post in the US.
Should these six individuals be the only ones attending, their collective wealth would surpass $1.12 trillion.
This amount represents roughly one-third of the total economic output of the UK, as the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) stands at approximately $3.73 trillion, according to the International Monetary Fund.
Additionally, this figure includes the wealth accrued by tech titans such as Apple’s founder Tim Cook, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and OpenAI founder Sam Altman.
And it doesn’t stop there when considering the affluence of political families that were in attendance, including the Bushes, Clintons, and Trumps.