Money buys influence in Washington. That was on display in the VIP seating at Donald Trump’s inauguration. He was flanked by many of the wealthiest people in the world—the CEOs of Meta, Alphabet, TikTok, Apple, Twitter/X and Amazon—while many prominent Republicans were shunted off to annex rooms to watch a live feed.

Their combined worth topped $1.3 trillion. Many had donated a million dollars toward the inauguration while their companies have or are seeking multi-billion-dollar federal contracts. Several of them and their companies are facing lawsuits from the Securities and Exchange Commission or antitrust lawsuits from the Federal Trade Commission.   

This was a lineup that wanted something from our government.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta just paid $25 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Trump and donated $1 million to the inauguration. The company is facing an antitrust lawsuit from the FTC. Republicans at the federal and state level have looked at legislation targeting Meta.

Elon Musk, who spent $288 million to help elect Trump and other Republicans, is facing an SEC lawsuit for improperly disclosing his holdings during his purchase of Twitter/X. He was recently installed by Trump as head of the Department of Government Efficiency, which is seeking to cut billions from the federal government budget. As CEO of SpaceX, he has multiple multi-billion-dollar contracts with the Department of Defense and NASA. 

Jeff Bezos’ Amazon is facing an antitrust lawsuit from the FTC and 18 state attorneys general. Amazon donated $1 million toward the inauguration and has multiple multi-billion-dollar contracts with military and intelligence agencies. Bezos’ Blue Origin has a multi-billion-dollar contract with NASA.

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, who donated $1 million to the inauguration, also has government business interests. Its Google has a multi-billion-dollar contract with the Department of Defense and faces two federal antitrust lawsuits.

In addition to their legal exposure and political giving, many tech billionaires are shifting their corporate policies to align with Trump’s.

Marc Benioff, a founder of Salesforce and longtime Democratic donor, donated $1 million to Trump, and his TIME magazine declared Trump its Person of the Year. 

Amazon and Washington Post owner Bezos spiked the paper’s planned endorsement of Kamala Harris. After Trump’s criticisms, Amazon joined companies like Target and Walmart to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion goals.

Meta had kicked Trump off Facebook after the violent January 6, 2021, insurrection, and Mark Zuckerberg apologized for its role in spreading disinformation. In addition to welcoming Trump back, Meta ended its fact-checking program and now allows hate speech against gender and sexual orientation.

When Musk took over Twitter/X, he also gutted the content moderation and safety teams and changed policies to allow for false and prejudiced content.

As big technology companies throttle competition and social media platforms continue to allow for egregious content, we need effective regulation. The European Union is far ahead in regulating anti-competitive practices and content moderation. Their solutions are imperfect, but they get closer to reigning in the incredible effect of the whims and fancies of a few individuals who decide what, when and how Americans consume information.

The billionaires onstage at the inauguration want to maintain the status quo, and their investments are clearly paying dividends. For the American people to regain their voice in our political system, we must fix our campaign finance system.

The Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling opened the floodgates to unlimited political spending by corporations and special interests. The 2024 elections were the costliest in history — nearly $16 billion nationwide, with $5 billion from outside sources. The top five mega-donors each donated more than $100 million to influence the elections.

Americans know money has too much influence on our political system. That is why Common Cause continues to advocate for money in politics solutions that empower small-dollar donors to make an effect, require disclosure of all campaign money raised and spent, remove the financial barriers stopping everyday people from running for office, and hold elected officials and wealthy special interests accountable. 

These reforms have been enacted, proven effective, and popular at the state and local levels. In recent years, only Republican filibusters in the Senate have stopped federal reforms from passing.

It is time to once again push federal reforms like the DISCLOSE Act. The billionaire class represented onstage at the inauguration will fight it, but it is time for the American people to be heard again.

Ishan Mehta is the director of the media and democracy program at Common Cause. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.