
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google CEO
Sundar Pichai, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and X owner Elon Musk sat on the inaugural platform close by Donald J. Trump as he was sworn in as president of the United States for the
second time on Monday.
TikTok CEO Shou Chew was also spotted in the Capitol Rotunda just days after news that Trump will reverse a recent ban on the platform.
After being sworn
in, President Trump will travel to the Capital One arena in Washington, D.C., which can accommodate roughly 20,000 people, to sign a flurry of executive orders, memorandums and proclamations that will
reverse many of his predecessors' policies and reinstate actions from his first term in office.
Among those orders will be to establish the Department of Government Efficiency run by Musk
and Vivek Ramaswamy. The work will include updating federal software systems to “private-sector standards,” according to a fact sheet viewed by the media outlet Semafor.
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The fact sheet outlines a way to “oversee a substantial reduction in the size and scope of government” and operate “within the” U.S. government.
Musk had
originally tried to cut $2 trillion from the roughly $6.8 trillion budget, but lowered that number to around $1 trillion.
If we try for $2 trillion, we’ve got a good shot at getting
one,” Musk said in an interview streamed on X. “And if we can drop the budget deficit from $2 trillion to $1 trillion and kind
of free up the economy to have additional growth — such that the output of goods and services keeps pace with the increase in the money supply, then there will be no inflation.”
The next four years will see a heavy focus on technology.
TikTok welcomed users back online during the weekend after being shut down briefly with a notice that read: “Thanks for your
patience and support. As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!”
During the weekend, Trump said the U.S. should have a 50% ownership position in a joint
venture with TikTok owners.
At least these were his initial thoughts on Sunday as a way to save the platform from completely shutting down.
"By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in
good hands and allow it to stay up,” Trump wrote Sunday on TruthSocial, one day before being sworn in as the 47th president of the United States. He said the deal -- whatever it may be --
must have U.S. approval, and valued that approval at “hundreds of billions of dollars -- maybe trillions.”
The joint venture would be between the current owners and/or new
owners. The U.S. would get 50% ownership in a joint venture set up between the U.S. and whichever U.S. purchaser is chosen.
Under the national security law, which was signed by former
president Joe Biden in April, Trump can grant TikTok more time to finalize a deal only by certifying to Congress that a qualified divestiture is in motion.
Trump must show there is a viable
path forward, and that “significant progress” has been made toward a deal.