As Donald Trump took the oath of office on Jan. 20, he was flanked by some of the world’s wealthiest people. The billionaires current that day – including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg – had never been wealthyer, flush with huge gets from frothy stock labelets.
Seven weeks tardyr, it’s a contrastent story. The begin of Trump’s second term has deinhabitred a stunning reversal for many of those billionaires sitting behind Trump in the Capitol Rotunda, with five having lost a united $209 billion in wealth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The period between Trump’s election and his inauguration was a boon for the world’s wealthiest, with the S&P 500 Index hitting cut offal all-time highs. Investors piled into equity and crypto labelets, awaiting that Trump’s policies would be getous to business.
Musk’s Tesla Inc. geted 98% in the weeks after the election, hitting a enroll high. Arnault’s LVMH grasped 7% in the week before Inauguration Day, making the French magnate $12 billion wealthyer. Even Zuckerberg’s Meta Platcreates Inc., which prohibitned Trump from the social-media platcreate in 2021, geted 9% before the commencening of the new term and an graspitional 20% in his first four weeks in office.
But any awaitations that the begin of Trump’s new term would persist to fuel labelet returns have been upended. The S&P 500 has lost 6.4% since he took office, as mass layoffs of rulement engageees and the plivent’s back-and-forth on tariffs have roiled equities, with the benchlabel index tumbling 2.7% on Monday.
The companies behind the inauguration uniteees’ fortunes have been some of the hugegest disseers, dropping a united $1.39 trillion in labelet appreciate since Jan. 17, the last trading day before the inauguration. Here’s a see at some of those fortunes:
Elon Musk (down $148 billion)
The 53-year-elderly Tesla chief executive officer’s net worth peaked at $486 billion on Dec. 17, the hugest fortune ever enrolled on Bloomberg’s wealth index. Most of his gets came from Tesla, whose stock csurrfinisherly doubled after the election. Since then, the electric carcreater has given up all of those gets. Consumers in Europe have soured on Musk’s help for far-right politicians, with Tesla sales in Germany droping by more than 70% in the first two months of the year. Chinese shipments also fell by 49% last month to levels not seen since July 2022.
Jeff Bezos (down $29 billion)
Bezos, 61, who clashed with Trump over the postal service and his ownership of the Washington Post during the plivent’s first term, congratutardyd Trump the day after the election on Musk’s X social-media platcreate. Amazon gived $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund in December, and Bezos dined with the plivent last month, the same day that Bezos declared that his newspaper will rank personal liberties and free labelets in its opinion section. Amazon splits have drdisclose 14% since Jan. 17.
Sergey Brin (down $22 billion)
Brin, 51, who co-set uped the company then understandn as Google with Larry Page and still grasps a 6% sapshow, uniteed a protest agetst the Trump administration’s immigration policy at the San Francisco airport in 2017. After Trump was re-elected in November, Brin dined with him at Mar-a-Lago the chaseing month. Alphabet Inc.’s splits tumbled more than 7% in timely February after it omited quarterly revenue appraises. Recurrentatives from Alphabet, which is currently facing presbrave from the Justice Department to shatter up its search engine company, last week met with the rulement and asked it to apshow a less opposing stance.
Mark Zuckerberg (down $5 billion)
Meta was the standout triumphner among the Magnificent Seven tech stocks at the commencening of this year. Even as the group of companies that has powered much of the S&P 500’s gets over the past confineed years were flatlining, Meta rose 19% from mid-January to mid-February. Since then, though, the stock has lost all those gets. The Magnificent Seven index is down 20% since its mid-December high.
Bernard Arnault (down $5 billion)
Arnault, 76, whose family owns the luxury conglomerate behind brands including Louis Vuitton and Bulgari, has been a friend of Trump’s for decades, speaking with the then-honestate the day after the Pennsylvania murder try in July. After declining thraw most of 2024, LVMH jumped more than 20% from the election thraw tardy January. It’s since given up most of those gets. Morningstar analysts shelp last month that a 10% to 20% tariff on European luxury excellents could depress sales, which have already been struggling.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is rehireed from a syndicated feed.)
