GOP Governors Booted From Trump Inauguration, Making Room For Billionaire CEOs and Fox News Host
President Donald Trump was inaugurated inside the Capitol Rotunda on Monday surrounded by former presidents, mega-donors, tech billionaires, and Fox News hosts, but noticeably kept out of the room were some of the country’s top Republican leaders.
“Governors have also been relegated to the Emancipation Hall overflow viewing space, including Republicans Indiana Gov. Mike Braun, Florida Gov. and former presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, and Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat. Kari Lake, a former candidate for senator and governor of Arizona, is also here,” noted the press pool report.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Patricia Murphy shared the pool report and noted that Georgia’s Gov. Kemp (R) was “sent to the overflow room, while Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and other tech CEOs and inaugural donors get the seats inside.”
Kemp, as well as Youngkin and DeSantis, is generally seen as a star in the Republican Party and a key ally for Trump in a state he narrowly lost in 2020.
Other pundits were quick to note that Musk, Zuckerberg, and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos were all in a row in front of Trump’s incoming cabinet. The Bulwark’s Tim Miller wrote on X, “Row 1 of the inauguration: The richest men in America who own all of the communications platforms. Row 2: The cabinet.”
Other prominent figures seen inside the Rotunda included GOP mega-donor Miriam Adelson, as well as fired Fox News host Tucker Carlson and current prime time host Laura Ingraham.
