Progressives Say "Billionaires' Row" at Inauguration Ceremony Shows True Winners of Trump Agenda

While President-elect Donald Trump is expected to hail the "start of a thrilling new era of national success" during his inaugural speech on Monday, progressives said the presence of some of the nation's most powerful billionaires at the event signals that the incoming administration's agenda will prioritize the success the country's wealthiest.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk are among the billionaires set to attend the inauguration ceremony. The trio will "have a prominent spot," according to NBC News, "seated together on the platform with other notable guests, including Trump's Cabinet nominees and elected officials."

“Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos know a thing or two about screwing over workers. It's no wonder they're sitting ringside for the inauguration of a man who's built a career out of cheating workers, ripping off families, and skipping out on paying taxes," Maurice Mitchell, national director of the Working Families Party, said in a statement Monday, characterizing the mega-rich attendees as "billionaires' row."

"The billionaires in attendance today have one goal: to get even richer by gutting our health care, public education, and Social Security," Mitchell added. "We're going to expose their grift, and bring new people with us along the way, until working people are the ones with the power, not billionaire bosses."

"Lobbyists and corporations have donated over $200 million to today's inauguration of Donald Trump—a small price to pay for buying off history's most corrupt grifter-in-chief."

A number of other high-profile billionaires are expected to attend the president-elect's swearing-in ceremony, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Apple CEO Tim Cook—both of whom donated $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund, which brought in record-shattering donations.

"Trump's White House is government by the billionaires, for the billionaires," Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said in a statement ahead of the inauguration. "Lobbyists and corporations have donated over $200 million to today's inauguration of Donald Trump—a small price to pay for buying off history's most corrupt grifter-in-chief. On Day One, Trump has shown us who he really is—a fighter for the wealthy, not the working class."

In addition to the outside billionaires backing Trump's second administration, which is pushing for another round of tax breaks for the rich and large corporations, the president-elect has proposed staffing his White House with at least 13 billionaires—from education secretary nominee Linda McMahon to treasury secretary pick Scott Bessent.

Including Musk—who is set to co-lead an advisory commission tasked with gutting federal regulations and spending—the combined net worth of Trump's incoming administration could exceed $460 billion, according to ABC News.

In a Fox News op-ed published Sunday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wrote that "we must not allow billionaire oligarchs to buy our government."

"Trump has repeatedly claimed that he wants the Republican Party to represent the needs of working people," Sanders continued. "Well, you don't do that by surrounding yourself with the richest people in the world and putting 13 billionaires in your Cabinet, many of whom have a direct financial stake in the industries they are charged with regulating."