Tech Billionaires Who Celebrated at Trump's Inauguration just lost Billions of Dollars
Tech billionaires who started dancing around Trump when he won the election are now the biggest losers in our society (or it looks that way). They lost billions in net worth as their companies' values plunged amid Trump’s tariff plan.
Overview of the stock plunges:
Meta is down 8.96%
Amazon is down 8.98%
Google is down 3.92%
Apple is down 9%
Tesla is down 5.47%
A historically terrible day…
As Trump announced his “Libertarian Day” tariffs on almost every U.S. trade partner, Wall Street (Dow and NASDAQ) saw a historically lousy day with plunges amongst the worst.
Dow Jones’s point drop ranked in the top five worst of all time, and NASDAQ suffered its most significant one-day point drop in that market’s history. S&P 500 dropped to the point it was in March 2020, when the COVID pandemic hit the world.
What the billionaires personally lost…
Mark Zuckerberg personally lost $17.9 billion
Jeff Bezos’s declined by $16 billion
Elon Musk was down by $8.7 billion
According to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the market drop took away $208 billion from the world’s richest 500 people. This was the fourth largest one-day decline in the tracker’s 13-year history.
At this rate, there is an increasing risk of a recession beginning in the next 12 months as Trump continues to chase after tariffs against almost all countries we trade with. Goldman Sachs predicts the chance of a recession is now 35%, up from their previous prediction of 20% just days before. Other companies like PolyMarket are putting the odds of a 2025 recession at 55%.
These losses mean nothing though…
Let’s go back to the 2008 housing crisis, when the middle class became poor, the poor became more inadequate, and the rich stacked up their money to create a more polarizing wealth divide.
These billionaires will ride out this dip and, more than likely, spend millions on stockpiling while everyone else suffers. Then, when the market comes back up, they will make billions while regular people fall further into poverty. They’ll buy property “on sale” (foreclosures or properties people can’t afford to pay for anymore due to the cost of living at a below-market rate) and then resell or rent out for more than it’s worth.
The billionaires can afford to ride this out, while regular folks' pensions and 401 (k) s shred. Senior citizens slated to retire now will either have to ride this economic downturn out and work longer than 65, or retire and take up a part-time service job to make ends meet. Even though it's other hard-earned money, it essentially evaporated in the stock market, and the only people who will benefit from this are the ultra-rich.
To them, it's pocket change… to us, our 401 (k), retirement, and livelihood.
Wrapping it up…
While the stock market turmoil caused by Trump's tariff plan has resulted in massive losses for tech billionaires, it's essential to recognize that these losses are only temporary blips in the grand scheme of their wealth.
They have the financial resources to weather the storm, whereas average Americans are left grappling with the real-world consequences of these economic shifts. The divide between the ultra-wealthy and the rest of society continues to widen, with billionaires likely to rebound quickly, seizing opportunities to buy up undervalued assets. At the same time, people face a much harder struggle every day.
As we look ahead, the growing risk of recession could further entrench inequality, leaving the most vulnerable to an economic downturn, while the rich continue to amass more wealth. Ultimately, the current financial landscape serves as a stark reminder of how fragile the economic security of ordinary citizens is, while the elite remain insulated from the fallout.
