TECH bosses Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg are all expected to have prominent seats at Donald Trump’s inauguration.
The news comes after it was revealed former First Lady Michelle Obama will skip Monday’s festivities – just days after ditching former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral.
All three tech giants will be seated on the platform close to cabinet officials and elected leaders, NBC first reported.
Musk, who has been a prominent backer of Trump on the X platform he owns, has donated more than a quarter of a billion dollars in campaign funds to the Republican in the past year.
The Tesla and SpaceX boss has also reportedly been a near-constant feature at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida since the election in November.
Bezos, who founded Amazon announced in the fall that The Washington Post – which he owns – would not endorse any candidate for president.
Amazon also contributed $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund.
Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, also gave $1 million to Trump’s inauguration.
This month, Zuckerberg, who founded Facebook while still in college, announced he was getting rid of fact-checkers at his company in what was seen as a sop to conservatives.
The news about Michelle Obama comes after she was absent from Carter’s funeral last week.
Barack Obama, the 44th president, will attend the inauguration and he was also at Carter’s funeral.
Obama was seen sharing a joke with Trump as the pair sat next to each other at Washington DC‘s National Cathedral.
No reason has been given for Michelle Obama’s absence from next week’s inauguration.
“Former President Barack Obama is confirmed to attend the 60th Inaugural Ceremonies,” a spokesperson from the Obama office said.
“Former First Lady Michelle Obama will not attend the upcoming inauguration.”
She missed the funeral of President Carter last week due to a prior engagement in Hawaii, a spokesperson said at the time.
President Joe Biden and wife Jill will be at the inauguration despite Donald and Melania skipping Biden’s ceremony in 2021.
A spokesperson for President George W Bush confirmed both he and his wife Laura will attend the inauguration on January 20.
President Bill Clinton and wife Hillary have also confirmed they will be attending next Monday’s events.
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The Obamas have both been huge critics of Trump in the past.
Both Barack and Michelle were present for Trump’s last inauguration in 2017.
In 2023, she described the event, slamming what she said was a lack of “diversity” and “color” in the ceremonies.
“There was no reflection of the broader sense of America,” she said on the first episode of her podcast with then-Today host Hoda Kotb.
“Many people took pictures of me and they’re like, you weren’t in a good mood. No, I was not.”
On Monday, it was confirmed country star Carrie Underwood will be singing at the inauguration.
The Before He Cheats singer will perform America the Beautiful at the event.
Also performing are Village People, whose campy 1970s hit Y.M.C.A. has become a bizarre feature at Trump rallies.
