The crime scene was set on Inauguration Day.
President-elect Donald Trump was front and center at the Capitol Rotunda. His family filled the front row. President Biden stood stage left, also surrounded by close family members.
If you think that’s normal, consider the second row.
Rather than the usual file of high-ranking cabinet members and elected officials, Trump held this space for the oligarchy: Side-by-side like vultures on a branch, tech and media billionaires stood in anticipation of their new boss. Their proximity to Trump itself served as a telling predictor of the corruption and decay that’s to come.
The billionaires' row
Closest to Trump stood Elon Musk, who spent at least a quarter-billion dollars during the election for the spot. He presumably offered this largess in exchange for policies and government contracts that could deliver tens of billions of dollars in benefits to Musk properties like Space-X, Starlink and Tesla. Musk transformed Twitter into a MAGA megaphone, and opened the algorithms to neo-Nazis and other bigots and malicious actors who were more than happy to flood X with hate and normalize and defend Trump’s extremism.
To Musk’s right stood Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who bought his company’s spot in the second row via a million-dollar check in support of Trump’s inaugural committee. Pichai’s priorities are to see that the Trump Justice Department abandons two high-profile antitrust lawsuits aimed at breaking Google’s market power. But Pichai was also there to ensure his company has a seat at the table when it comes to shaping AI policy in a Trump-controlled Congress and grabbing some of the billions of dollars in government contracts tied to the advanced technology.
To Pichai’s right stood Amazon Chairman Jeff Bezos and his fiancée Lauren Sánchez. Bezos also wrote a million-dollar check to the inaugural committee. But, of course, his pandering goes further back. Prior to the 2024 election, the Washington Post owner spiked the newspaper’s endorsement of Kamala Harris. He later had Amazon tender a $40 million offer for the rights to produce a documentary on Melania Trump (reportedly outbidding Disney and Paramount). Bezos came for federal contracts as well, seeking among other deals billions in government-launch contracts for Blue Origin, his space venture.
And finally, stood Mark Zuckerberg, who spent the weeks leading up to the inauguration making himself into a pretzel to fit into a shape that Trump might find appealing. That involved almost completely abandoning any prior commitment to content moderation on Meta platforms while mouthing the ridiculous Trumpist belief that fact checking — or any attempt to hold Republicans accountable — is a form of censorship that must be curtailed in the name of free speech.
In addition to writing a million-dollar Meta check for the inaugural committee, Zuckerberg co-hosted the new president during a black-tie reception later in the evening. In exchange, Zuckerberg is hoping for more of the same AI contracts — and expecting Trump to rein in Rep. Jim Jordan and his Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, which has targeted Meta for allegedly “censoring conservative viewpoints.”
Not to be left out on the grift, Trump issued a “crypto token” days before his inauguration. By swearing in, $TRUMP had reached a value of $15 billion, nearly tripling the new president’s net worth.
When too few control too much media
With so much easy money lying around, it’s not clear whether Trump will have the time or inclination to actually lead the country — or at least address the concerns of the 49.9 percent of voters who chose him in November, as well as those who didn’t. (In case you’re wondering, those concerns are: 1. The economy/inflation, 2. U.S. democracy and 3. national security.)
During his final presidential address from the Oval Office, Biden warned that “an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy.” Indeed, Biden was on hand in the Rotunda to witness the oligarchy, his warnings still ringing in the ears of many.
While these big tech billionaires appeared in Washington to help themselves, they know that Trump will exact a toll in exchange. They are no longer going to act as good stewards of our nation’s media; they ever did. They aren’t even obligated to ensure the health and safety of their users, a responsibility they seem to hate. The role of media billionaires under a Trump administration is simple: Get in on the grift by going along with the MAGA agenda.
Biden warned that “Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation enabling the abuse of power... Social media is giving up on fact-checking. The truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit.”
The billionaires assembled within reach of the new president were there to assure Trump that they’ll make it so.
Their presence is proof of a systemic failure of the media. A lesson learned: Never again should so few control so many levers of information in our democracy. The work of repairing the damage of the coming years will be hard but essential. But Trump’s inauguration gave a renewed clarity of purpose. A healthy democracy requires a healthy media. And you can’t have that when greedy tech billionaires control far too much of it.
