Tech billionaires want to get richer. Trump is already helping them.

By Brittany Luse,

Bobby Allyn, Barton Girdwood, Jasmine Romero, Veralyn Williams

Published January 24, 2025 at 8:48 AM EST

President Trump & Silicon Valley's new relationship

President Trump is no stranger to buddying up with the ultra rich, and that was on full display at his inauguration. Tech CEOs billionaires like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos were lined up at the proceeding. But beyond the optics, what policies are these CEOs and the new president working on together?

Brittany is joined by NPR's tech correspondent Bobby Allyn and The Atlantic's Ashley Parker to answer the question: is America a "tech oligarchy?" And what examples from Trump's first week in office point to that?

For more, read Ashley Parker's piece "The Tech Oligarchy Arrives" in The Atlantic.

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Brittany Luse

Brittany Luse is an award-winning journalist, on-air host, and cultural critic. She is the host of It's Been a Minute and For Colored Nerds. Previously Luse hosted The Nod and Sampler podcasts, and co-hosted and executive produced The Nod with Brittany and Eric, a daily streaming show. She's written for Vulture and Harper's Bazaar, among others, and edited for the podcasts Planet Money and Not Past It. Luse and her work have been profiled by publications like The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vulture, and Teen Vogue.

Bobby Allyn

Bobby Allyn is a business reporter at NPR based in San Francisco. He covers technology and how Silicon Valley's largest companies are transforming how we live and reshaping society.

See stories by Bobby Allyn

Barton Girdwood

Jasmine Romero

Veralyn Williams

Veralyn Williams (she/her) is a Peabody and Edward R. Murrow award-winning journalist who has been asking hard questions about our world since she picked up her first microphone in 2004. Now she brings her skills (and ears) to her role as executive producer of programming at NPR.