On the crowded stage within the Capitol Rotunda on Inauguration Day have been 4 of the world’s 5 richest males, 5 U.S. presidents, tech titans and enterprise tycoons, and two senior international leaders.
President Donald Trump welcomed a mixture of conventional, unprecedented and unorthodox company: from Supreme Court justices to the vice chairman of China and the top of TikTok, an app that US authorities have flagged as a nationwide safety threat, alongside Trump’s decide to guide the intelligence neighborhood.
Scattered all through have been members of the president’s household and different acquainted faces in Trump’s orbit. Most lawmakers sat throughout from Trump, watching the brand new president take the oath of workplace.
Here’s who was on stage and who they sat subsequent to.
1. Shou Zi Chew, CEO of TikTok, was seated subsequent to Tulsi Gabbard, who Trump named director of nationwide intelligence. Trump intervened this weekend in an try and cease the ban on TikTok, seen as a possible risk to nationwide safety. The president has credited the social community with serving to him win final yr’s election, however the platform faces a ban if its China-based mum or dad firm would not discover a purchaser accepted by Washington.
2. Joe Rogan, who’s among the many hottest podcasters on the planet, sat down for a three-hour interview with Trump within the remaining stretch of the marketing campaign and in the end endorsed him a day earlier than Election Day. Trump expressed gratitude to him.
3. A bunch of billionaires and tech titans sat on the identical row. They embrace Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the world’s richest man. They sat behind Trump’s spouse, Melania, and his kids, however forward of a lot of his cupboard nominees. Musk, who turned nearer to Trump after the election, was the one sitting closest to Trump. Bernard Arnault, chief government of French tycoon LVMH, the world’s largest luxurious vendor whose manufacturers embrace Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior, was on the alternative facet of the stage.
4. Barron Trump is Trump’s youngest son. The president credited him with spreading his marketing campaign on-line, saying it launched him to Internet personalities he had by no means heard of earlier than. Barron Trump is now 18 and a freshman economics pupil at New York University, however he may have a bed room within the White House.
5. Kai Trump, one among Trump’s granddaughters, is a social media influencer and an avid golfer. Kai Trump is barely 17 however has develop into extra common over the previous yr, taking the stage on the Republican National Convention and talking briefly at a rally over the weekend. She is the daughter of Donald Trump Jr., who has helped her father with a few of his selections and is seen as a champion of loyalty in his orbit.
6. Miriam Adelson and John Paulson have been among the many Trump marketing campaign’s greatest donors and bought prime seats for the ceremony alongside incoming White House chief of employees Susie Wiles. Paulson, a billionaire investor, was the host of a fundraiser in Palm Beach, Florida, that set a report for a single occasion, including $50.5 million to the marketing campaign final April. Adelson is the co-owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks and widow of billionaire on line casino mogul Sheldon Adelson. She is a giant Trump supporter and, together with Zuckerberg, hosted one other inaugural occasion on Monday.
7. Former presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and outgoing President Joe Biden additionally gained prime seats. All of their wives, besides former first girl Michelle Obama, have been sitting there, too. Michelle Obama had already introduced that she would skip the swearing-in ceremony. He gave no motive.
8. In an unprecedented transfer, Trump invited international leaders to the inauguration, and so they too bought coveted seats on the ceremony. Argentine President Javier Milei was sitting subsequent to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. They have been additionally subsequent to Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, despatched by President Xi Jinping to characterize him. The Chinese ambassador to the United States, Xie Feng, was additionally close by.
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