The five richest men to attend Donald Trump’s inauguration have seen their wealth tumble by $210bn thanks to market turmoil from his trade war, writes Hugo Duncan.
The Republican victor was sworn in for a second term in the White House on January 20 with the stock market riding high and confidence in the United States booming.
The buoyant mood was underlined by the presence of the world’s biggest technology tycoons – Tesla’s Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg.
Also among them at the Capitol Rotunda in Washington DC was Bernard Arnault, the French billionaire behind the LVMH empire that includes Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior and Tiffany.
But if the self-styled Masters of the Universe were hoping their association with the President would boost business – and their wealth – they might feel somewhat disgruntled now.
Mr Musk – nicknamed ‘First Buddy’ for his close relationship with Mr Trump – has suffered losses of $149bn since inauguration day.
While the stock markets rallied in the weeks after Mr Trump’s election victory in November and into the early part of this year, the situation now looks very different, with fears of recession mounting and shares tumbling.
And Mr Trump threw fuel on the fire yesterday as he ramped up his trade war with Canada. “The Trump bump has gone,” declared Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, while Gennadiy Goldberg, head of US rates strategy at TD Securities, said the mood has switched “from exuberance about growth to absolute despair.”
The S&P 500 – a key stock market benchmark in the US – has fallen 9% since last month’s peak and 6% since the inauguration in January.
On Monday night, the tech-focused Nasdaq index fell 4%, its worst performance since 2022.
The slump means those five billionaires are now $210bn poorer than they were as they took their seats at the inauguration, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Mr Musk has been hardest hit, with his electric car firm now worth half what it was less than three months ago at its peak.
But Mr Trump has lent some support to his right-hand man by pledging to buy a new Tesla car.
The President wrote on his Truth Social platform: “I’m going to buy a brand new Tesla tomorrow morning as a show of confidence and support for Elon Musk, a truly great American.”
The First Buddy remains the world’s richest person with a fortune of $301bn despite the recent slump.
Mr Bezos is worth $216bn even after losing $22.5bn under Mr Trump while Mr Zuckerberg has seen his fortune fall by more than $5bn to $211bn.
Mr Arnault’s wealth is also down over $5bn to $183bn.
They take the top four places on the Bloomberg Billionaires List.
Mr Brin, at number nine, has seen his fortune fall $22bn to $142bn under Trump.
In total, the five billionaires’ companies – Telsa, Amazon, Google owner Alphabet, Meta and LVMH – have seen their stock market value fall by more than $1.3trillion since the inauguration.
Concerns are deepening as Mr Trump slaps tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China while also threatening to target Europe.
It is feared a global trade war will hammer profits, drive up prices, hit living standards – and even tip the US into recession.
Photo: Mark Zuckerberg, Lauren Sanchez, Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai and Elon Musk attend the Inauguration of Donald J. Trump. (Photo by Julia Demaree Nikhinson - Pool/Getty Images)
