Featured Image Credit: JULIA DEMAREE NIKHINSON/POOL/AFP via Getty Images/ Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Topics: Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Politics, US News, Money
Britt Jones
Topics: Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Politics, US News, Money
As Donald Trump gave his Presidency oath, five of the richest men in the world stood behind him and now, they’ve collectively lost $209 billion.
It all began on January 20, when Trump was inaugurated and became the US President for the second time.
During the day, many were shocked to see five billionaires surrounding him and attending the event. Those people were Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Bernard Arnault and Sergey Brin.
Of course, the Tesla mogul was there as he had been very active during Trump's campaign and continues to be of service to White House by having a key role in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), but why the rest were there was a mystery.
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Initially, all five members enjoyed an increase in the stock market, and its subsequent financial gain… before it dipped and left them less off than they were before the inauguration.
It was seven weeks after the start of Trump’s second term when the group lost the collective wealth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
This is because the S&P 500 index has dropped nearly 7 percent since Trump took office, as per Bloomberg.
According to Bloomberg, it was the weeks between Trump's election and his inauguration that the S&P 500 index reached several historical highs and investors flew to the stock and cryptocurrency markets as they expected Trump's policies to boost the markets all round.
This in turn made Musk's Tesla Inc. increase by a hefty 98 percent, Bernard Arnault's LVMH increase by 7 percent, and Zuckerberg's Meta by 29 percent.
However, the companies the billionaires own went on to drop by a total of $1.43 trillion in market value.
Before the drop, Musk was the largest fortune ever recorded in the Bloomberg billionaire index with his $486 billion on December 17, with Tesla sales in Germany falling by more than 70 percent after Trump took to office.
Many believe this is because of Musk’s customers being upset with his political affiliation, leaving him $145 billion worse off.
While Amazon donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration, Bezos lost $31 billion after Amazon sales fell by 15 percent.
As for Brin, who co-founded Google (Alphabet Inc.) with Larry Page and continues to hold 6 percent of the shares, his shares in Alphabet Inc. fell by more than 7 percent in the weeks after the company missed quarterly revenue estimates, losing him $23 billion.
Zuckerberg has probably had a luckier escape with Meta than most after losing $8 billion when The Magnificent Seven index fell by 21 percent from its mid-December peak.
And as for Arnault, he lost $5 billion and took the lesser hit than the rest of the group.
His family owns the conglomerate (LVMH) behind Louis Vuitton and Bulgari and has been a notable friend of Trump’s for decades.
Morningstar analysts shared that the 10-20 percent tariff on European luxury goods could reduce his already struggling sales.
So, maybe the inauguration appearance wasn’t for the best for these billionaires?