Tech billionaires Bezos and Zuckerberg joined Trump at the pre-inauguration service

A circle of tech billionaires and key members of his inner circle joined President-elect Donald Trump as he began his first celebrations including a church service on Monday morning.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai were seen taking prime seats at St John’s Church.

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch, FIFA president Gianni Infantino and former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson were also spotted at the church.

Many of these executives were among Trump’s earliest critics in the business world during his first term, speaking out on issues such as climate change and immigration.

Several tech executives joined Trump in the Capitol rotunda, including SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who spent a few moments staring up at the decorated ceiling.

Musk spent nearly $300m helping the president on the campaign trail and has been sticking by his side ever since.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chou is also expected to attend the opening ceremony, as his company faces the brunt of the US ban, along with OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Uber’s Dara Khosrowshahi.

It is an amazing spectacle. The last public event in Washington to bring so many tech executives together in one room was a 2020 conference aimed at their companies.

Today, many of the firms still have serious issues pending before the US government, including anti-terror lawsuits, investigations, regulatory and tax litigation.

Last week, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Michael Bennett, both Democrats, shared a letter directed at the administration, accusing them of trying to “coddle the incoming Trump administration in an effort to avoid scrutiny, limit regulations and buy favors”.

“It’s funny that they never sent me one of these to contribute to the Democrats,” said Mr. Altman on social media in response.

How the endurance of the tech bromance proves and how far Trump will push on many of these issues remain open questions.

But the president, who left office for the first time as a member of the business party, seems to be enjoying his new position.

As she wrote on social media last month: “Everybody wants to be my friend!!!”

Trump’s budding friendship with tech executives has not gone down well with everyone in his circle.

Former Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon on Sunday called Musk “a really bad guy”, saying he was “going to get him out of here on Inauguration Day”.

“I look at this and I think a lot of people in our organization look at this as President Trump breaking the oligarchs, breaking them and surrendering,” Bannon told ABC News.