РУССКИЙ
12:18 23.01.2025 •
Priscilla Chan, co-founder of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative LLC, from left, Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Meta Platforms Inc., Lauren Sanchez, Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com Inc., Sundar Pichai, chief executive officer of Alphabet Inc., and Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., during the presidential inauguration in the rotunda of the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025.
Photo: Bloomberg
Billionaire business leaders who want bragging rights usually flock to the World Economic Forum summit in Davos, Switzerland — but this year it’s being overshadowed by Donald Trump’s inauguration, ‘The New York Post’ notes.
The Swiss forum kicked off on the same day, Jan. 20, and regulars including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, and Uber’s Dara Khosrowshahi were not in Davos, but in Washington, DC for Trump.
Sources close to the new administration say it’s an indication political events — and President Trump’s actions — are far more significant to US businesses and leaders than anything in the Swiss Alps could be.
“It’s unfortunate timing for Davos,” one source said of the event, which runs until Jan. 24. “If you’re a business leader, your time is better spent at the receptions meeting the people who will drive policy in the US, where you are talking about business and trade and ripple effects across the pond.”
A well-placed venture capitalist helping craft Trump’s tech policy told NYNext that for the first time in years, “I don’t know anyone going to Davos.”
Davos attracts important businesspeople, lawmakers, presidents and policy makers from around the globe to debate the largest problems humanity faces, but it is often labelled elitist, too woke and a place where there is much talk but little action.
CEOs are instead betting time with Trump, 78, at the inauguration will be better for business.
Since Trump’s election last November, CEOs have been falling over themselves to win him over — some even after years of antagonizing the Republican leader.
Apple CEO Tim Cook, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai have each donated $1 million to the Inaugural fund in an effort to show new support for Trump and to get themselves plugged into the new administration.
So many people are eager to donate the incoming president has raised a record $170 million — almost triple the $62 million Joe Biden raised for his inaugural fund.
The split in attendance underscores the larger trend of Silicon Valley embracing Donald Trump, while Wall Street has remained largely quiet.
On Wall Street, which has remained a stronghold for Democrats, most bank executives are expected to stick to their usually scheduled programming and spend the entire week in Davos, with world leaders.
“They need international friends because they don’t have friends in this government,” a regular at Davos, who is instead attending the Inauguration this year, joked of the Wall Street CEOs headed to Davos.
“People are trying to do both,” one Wall Street source explained. “But people can prioritize Inauguration weekend and still get to Davos.”
While Davos remains focused on issues like climate and “amplifying perspectives from indigenous communities,” over the last year its programming has also shifted marginally towards the center of the political spectrum.
The source close to Trump adds, “The election showed the Davos way of thinking about the world is dead… there is a return to populism on trade, immigration and economic and security policies.”
Donalt Trump does not like Pedro Sanchez (left).
Photo: The Washington Post
Meanwhile, panic is growing in Europe due to the changes that have begun in the United States.
Spain’s socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is urging the world to “fight back” against Trump and the “Silicon Valley techno-caste.”
Speaking on Monday as Donald Trump took office for the second time, Sánchez accused American tech billionaires of “trying to use their absolute power over social media to control public debate and, therefore, government action, in the entire Western world.”
“I want to be clear and concise on this, I will say it in less than 280 characters: democracy is not one euro, one vote; it is not one tweet, one vote; it is one person, one vote,” He continued.
”Therefore, Europe must stand up to this threat and defend democracy,” he said.
While Musk did not name any of the tech moguls by name, it was an obvious reference to Elon Musk, who has infuriated left-wing establishments around the world by purchasing Twitter and ending the censorship regime implemented under its previous leadership.
Sanchez also complained about the influence of the “international far-right” represented by leaders such as Argentina’s Javier Milei and Hungary’s Viktor Orban, whom he claims have benefited from the lack of social media censorship.
It was also likely a jab at Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg, both of whom gone out their way of to mend bridges with the 47th president and who were present at the inauguration ceremony on Monday.
His warnings come as European leaders express concern at the threat Trump and a lack of online social censorship poses to their grip on power.
read more in our Telegram-channel https://t.me/The_International_Affairs
