In the weeks leading up to Donald Trump’s inauguration as president, his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach has been transformed into a gathering place for some of the world’s most powerful and wealthy people.
In addition to Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and Sergey Brin, among others, have recently visited Trump’s private club, described as “a new center of power” in the United States.
According to Bloomberg’s review, six of the world’s richest people have visited Trump since his election win in November. Several of the visitors are longtime Trump allies, while others appear to be trying to build relationships with the president-elect.
Among the visitors is Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whose private jet landed at Palm Beach International Airport on November 26. Meta has confirmed that Zuckerberg attended a dinner and met with members of Trump’s team.
Following this visit, the tech giant soon also announced its plans to remove fact-checking from its platforms and reduce censorship, decisions that are believed to have been made to make Trump more sympathetic to the company and its business.
Amazon’s founder and former richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos, visited Trump in December. According to media reports, Amazon has since pledged to donate $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund and to fund a documentary about Melania Trump.
Vaccine lobbyist and multi-billionaire Bill Gates, former CEO of Microsoft, is another high-profile name who flew to Palm Beach in late December and confirmed he had a three-hour dinner with Trump.
Well, it seems that Gates’ visit to Mar-a-Lago went well. If anything, I’d say we may sooner see an Operation Warp Speed 2.0 than indictments. pic.twitter.com/D1IcUXZw2d
— Dorin Popa (@octavianusausa) January 18, 2025
Venture capitalists and Google executives
It is no secret that Elon Musk and Donald Trump have a very close relationship today, and the world’s richest man, who has been appointed the president’s chief efficiency officer, has visited Mar-a-Lago on more than a dozen occasions since the election win and spent several weeks there.
Other billionaires such as Sergey Brin (Google), Larry Ellison (Oracle), Gina Rinehart (Hancock Prospecting), and the Winklevoss twins (cryptocurrency) are also reported to have visited Mar-a-Lago in recent weeks to get a chance to talk one-on-one with the next President of the United States.
Other names on Bloomberg’s list include businessman Howard Lutnick, whom Trump has appointed Secretary of Commerce, biotech mogul Patrick Soon-Shiong, cryptocurrency pioneers the Winklevoss twins, and casino billionaire Tilman Fertitta.
Yesterday’s inauguration ceremony was also attended by a number of the world’s richest men – including Zuckerberg and Bezos. Many of the business leaders and tech moguls invited are also reported to have made significant contributions to Trump’s inauguration fund.