The dais at the inauguration of President Donald Trump can now be referred to as billionaire's row, after the rich and famous were spotted sitting in far better seats for the event than members of Congress or even Trump's cabinet picks.
One GOP lawmaker complained to The Daily Beast's Juliegrace Brufke, who posted to X, "'Charlie Kirk has better seats than every member of Congress. Tells you how little Trump team thinks of Congress,' one GOP lawmaker tells me."
Kirk is a MAGA zealot and organizer of far-right youth movement Turning Point USA. According to Ali Breland with The Atlantic, called Kirk a "kingmaker" and "the most important person" in MAGA next to Trump himself, because he's able to influence young people.
One person responded to Brufke's post with, "Well, I think @charliekirk11 did more for Trump than most House Republicans combined. Besides, it is easier to seat a few people than to accommodate dozens from the House."
Another posted, "Charlie never fought AGAINST HIM, and helped get him elected."
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Kirk is said to be worth about $12 million, which is a pittance compared to the billionaire status of the tech CEOs seated on the dais Monday. Forbes reported, "The world’s three wealthiest people have already been spotted at inauguration day events:Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (worth $239.4 billion according to Forbes’ estimates), Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg ($211.8 billion) and Elon Musk ($433.9 billion), the Tesla CEO, world’s richest person and presidential confidant who spent over a quarter of a billion dollars to help Trump win November's election.
"OpenAI CEO Sam Altman ($1.1 billion) and Apple CEO Tim Cook ($2.2 billion), who donated money to the inauguration, were in the Capitol Rotunda Monday morning, as was billionaire backer Miriam Adelson ($31.9 billion) and former Fox News Chairman Rupert Murdoch ($22.2 billion)."
The billionaire presence was in stark contrast to Trump's populist appeal during his campaign. Former adviser Steve Bannon declared that the billionaires surrounding Trump were "being used as trophies by the new president."
"They're not there because they support Trump. They're there because the Trump movement and President Trump broke them," Bannon told NPR.
