A Guide to the Richest and Most Powerful at Trump’s Swearing-In

The crowded stage of Capitol Rotunda on Inauguration day featured four of the world’s five richest men, five U.S. presidents, tech titans and business moguls, and two foreign leaders in high-profile positions.

President Donald Trump has hosted a mix of traditional, unprecedented and unorthodox guests — from Supreme Court justices to China’s vice president to the head of state. TikTokan app that US authorities have flagged as a national security risk, alongside the person Trump chose to lead the intelligence community.

Members of the president’s family and other familiar faces in Trump’s orbit were scattered throughout. Lawmakers mostly sat in front of Trump, watching the new president take the oath of office.

Here’s who was on the platform and who they were sitting next to.

1. Shou Zi ChewThe TikTok CEO sat next to Tulsi Gabbard, whom Trump named director of national intelligence. Trump intervened this weekend to try to end the ban on TikTok, seen as a potential threat to national security. The president has credited the social network with helping him win last year’s election, but the platform faces banning if the China-based parent company does not find a Washington-approved buyer.

2. Joe Roganwho is among the most popular podcasters in the world, sat down for a three-hour interview with Trump during the latter part of the campaign and ultimately endorsed him a day before Election Day. Trump expressed his gratitude to him.

3. A group of billionaires and tech titans seated in the same row. They included Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the world’s richest man. They were seated behind Trump’s wife, Melania, and his children, but in front of several of his Cabinet nominees. Musk, who has grown closer to Trump since the election, was the one closest to Trump. Bernard Arnault, CEO of French tycoon LVMH, the world’s largest seller of luxury goods whose brands include Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior, was on the other side of the stage.

4. Barron Trump is Trump’s youngest son. He was credited by the president for raising his campaign’s online awareness, saying he introduced him to Internet personalities he had never heard of before. Barron Trump is now 18 and a first-year business student at New York University, but he will have a room in the White House.

5. Kai Trump, one of Trump’s granddaughters, is a social media influencer and an avid golfer. Kai Trump is only 17 years old but has become more popular over the past year, taking the stage at the Republican National Convention and speaking briefly at a rally this weekend. She is the daughter of Donald Trump Jr., who helped her father with some of his choices and is seen as a guarantor of loyalty in his orbit.

6. Miriam Adelson and John Paulson were among the Trump campaign’s biggest donors and earned a prime spot at the ceremony alongside new White House chief of staff Susie Wiles. Paulson, a billionaire investor, hosted a fundraiser in Palm Beach, Fla., that set a single-event record, adding $50.5 million to the campaign last April. Adelson is co-owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks and widow of billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson. She is a major Trump supporter and, along with Zuckerberg, was hosting another inaugural event on Monday.

7. Former presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and outgoing President Joe Biden also secured prime seats. All of their wives, except former first lady Michelle Obama, were also seated there. Michelle Obama previously announced that she would not attend the inauguration ceremony. She gave no reason.

8. In an unprecedented move, Trump invited foreign leaders to the inauguration, and they also secured coveted seats for the ceremony. Argentine President Javier Milei sat next to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. They were also alongside Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, whom President Xi Jinping sent to represent him. China’s ambassador to the United States, Xie Feng, was also nearby. ______

Associated Press writers Mark Sherman and Didi Tang contributed to this report from Washington.