With only a couple of weeks left before Donald Trump’s inauguration, an array of billionaires has descended on his Florida resort Mar-a Lago to curry favor with the president-elect.
Some, like Elon Musk, are well-known, ubiquitous entities. The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX has become Trump's frequent companion and adviser, popping up at his New Year's Eve bash, at meetings with other tech CEOs or on calls with global leaders. He invested more than $270 million in Trump’s campaign and has become the incoming president’s neighbor/tenant at Mar-a-Lago, according to reporting from The New York Times.
Then there are the lesser known influencers. Hussain Sajwani, chairman of Dubai real estate firm Damac Properties who has done business with the Trumps, showed off a picture with the president-elect and Musk from the New Year’s Eve celebration on his Instagram page.
The range and number of billionaires and tech moguls orbiting Trump in Florida — and those poised to join his incoming administration in Washington — are an indication of what we can expect in a second Trump presidency.
Musk’s influence
Musk's outsized involvement in Trump's world since his reelection has led to him being tapped for a budget-cutting advisory group named after the memecoin DOGE and aggressively lobbying lawmakers on his social media platform X.
In December, Musk became the first person worth over $400 billion even though Tesla sales slumped slightly in 2024, the first year of declines for the company amid growing international competition from China in particular.
Musk’s business interests also include space exploration, as he remains in control of the private company SpaceX. Critics question whether it could benefit from Trump's nomination of Jared Isaacman as head of NASA — a billionaire who promoted the development of private space exploration and has partnered with SpaceX on trips.
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If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Isaacman would in charge of a government agency with about 18,000 people and a budget of around $25 billion, the Wall Street Journal estimates. He would oversee billions of dollars’ worth of contracts that NASA holds with SpaceX and the company’s direct competitors, CNN reports.
While Musk does not see eye-to-eye with Trump's MAGA base on all issues, including H1-B visas, he’s likely to remain a significant influence in his second presidency.
"The most beautiful people from Dubai"
Hussain Sajwani's presence at Trump's New Year’s Eve party was not surprising. He and his family have attended it in previous years, including in 2017, when Trump called them "the most beautiful people in Dubai," according to The Associated Press. They have maintained strong business connections with the Trump Organization through projects in the United Arab Emirates. On Tuesday, Trump announced Sajwani is investing at least $20 billion in the U.S. to support new data centers.
Sajwani's company, DAMAC Properties, is renowned for opulent developments like the Cavalli Tower and its collaborations with Versace. His growing business interests extend far beyond the small UAE: DAMAC has offices in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Lebanon, China and Singapore.
DAMAC and the Trump Organization opened a Trump-branded golf course at a development in Dubai in 2017. The partnership was struck before Trump was elected president in 2016, and his family pledged then not to sign new international deals while he was in office.
"We’re open to any new project, depends on the circumstance and the market"
Trump Organization, led by Trump's son Eric, is planning several residential, golf and hotel projects in the region as a part of a global expansion, according to its website. These include residential, hotel and golf projects in Oman, several residential developments in Saudi Arabia and residential and a hotel project in Dubai.
London-based publication Arabian Gulf Business Insight reported in December that DAMAC has secured the rights to build a Trump Tower in Abu Dhabi, citing sources familiar with the matter. Neither Damac nor the Trump Organization have confirmed or commented on the agreement.
In November, Sajwani told BloombergTV his relationship with the Trump Organization goes back over a decade and could expand further.
“We’re open to any new project, depends on the circumstance and the market,” Sajwani said.
Bezos, Zuckerberg head south
Some billionaires who clashed with Trump in previous years have sought to mend fences since his reelection.
Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and rocket company Blue Origin and owner of the Washington Post, made the pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago in December. He was spotted there with Musk, who described their dinner as a “great conversation” in a post on X. Amazon plans to donate $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund.
On Sunday, Amazon said its Prime Video streaming service would release a documentary this year about Melania Trump, who will be an executive producer of it. The announcement came two days after Ann Telnaes, a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist at the Washington Post, said she quit because her bosses blocked the publication of a cartoon depicting Bezos and other billionaires kneeling before Trump.
The Post, which endorsed Trump's Democratic opponents in 2016 and 2020, said in October it would stop endorsing presidential candidates and did not publish a drafted endorsement of Democratic nominee Kamala Harris — a decision made by Bezos, according to the newspaper's own article.
Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Meta, dined at Mar-a-Lago with Trump in late November, four years after Trump accused him of interfering in the 2020 election.
Zuckerberg minimized news and political content recommendations on Meta's social media platforms this election cycle, and the company gave $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund. Zuckerberg has reportedly appointed Joel Kaplan, a former Republican White House official, to be in charge of policy at Meta. On Monday, Zuckerberg announced that Meta had added Dana White, the chief executive of Ultimate Fighting Championship and a longtime friend of Trump's, to the board of Meta. Additionally, Meta is ending the fact-checking program it uses to reduce the misinformation that can appear on its social media apps.
It’s no wonder Trump called his Florida residence the “Center of the Universe” in a recent social media post, adding, “Bill Gates asked to come, tonight.”
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