Mr Trump is more transactional than presidents before him, which increases the risk of cronyism and self-dealing. But America’s economy, including its technology industry, is too unwieldy and dynamic to petrify into an actual oligarchy, whatever diplomats and departing presidents say. ■

A who's who of tech titans, business magnates, and global elites attended President Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration, including Musk, Bezos, and Zuckerberg.

Seated directly behind the president at his second inauguration and representing a power shift in U.S. politics were top executives of the world’s largest tech companies.

It’s going to be led by dynamic entrepreneurial capitalism.” The deal has since fallen apart, he says, a process he credits to, among other related causes, “the Great Awokening,” radicalized “America-hating communist” tech employees and political staffers,