The president-elect’s private Palm Beach club has turned into “a new center of power,” the report says
The world’s top moguls have been flocking to Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida in the weeks before his inauguration, with many confirming meetings with the US president-elect, Bloomberg reported on Saturday.
According to JetSpy aviation data cited by the agency, six of the world’s ten richest people have flown to Florida since Trump’s election victory in November, with Bloomberg describing the president-elect’s private Palm Beach club as “a new center of power.”
While some of the high-profile visitors are longtime allies of Trump, others appear to be forging new ties with the man about to re-enter the White House, the article said.
Among them was Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Meta Platforms Inc. Zuckerberg’s jet landed at Palm Beach International Airport (PBI) on November 26 and departed the next day, according to aviation data. Meta has confirmed the meeting, saying that Zuckerberg “was grateful for the invitation” to dinner and the opportunity to meet with members of Trump’s team.
Trump was temporarily banned from Meta platforms following the January 2021 Capitol riot. After Zuckerberg’s visit, the company announced plans to remove fact-checkers from its platforms, a move seen as addressing Trump’s criticisms.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos also had a meeting with Trump in December at Mar-a-Lago, with his plane recorded in Florida for several hours. According to media reports, Amazon has since pledged $1 million for Trump’s inauguration and agreed to fund a $40 million documentary on Melania Trump.
Bill Gates, former CEO of Microsoft, flew into PBI in late December. Gates, who previously supported Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign, confirmed the meeting, saying he had a three-hour dinner with Trump.
Elon Musk, owner of X and one of Trump’s closest allies, has been a frequent visitor to Mar-a-Lago. According to JetSpy, Musk’s planes have made more than a dozen trips to Palm Beach since Election Day, with records showing a total of three weeks spent in the area.
The planes of other billionaires, including Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Oracle’s Larry Ellison, Uber’s Travis Kalanick, and Gina Rinehart, Australian mining magnate and chair of Hancock Prospecting, have also made trips to PBI in recent weeks. Others include tycoon Howard Lutnick, whom Trump picked as his commerce secretary, biotech mogul Patrick Soon-Shiong, cryptocurrency moguls the Winklevoss twins, and casino billionaire Tilman Fertitta.
Trump’s inauguration, which is scheduled for January 20, is expected to attract numerous billionaires, including Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg, Apple’s Tim Cook, Uber’s Dara Khosrowshahi, and OpenAI’s Sam Altman. Many of the companies and tech moguls invited have made sizeable contributions to the Trump inaugural fund, according to Time magazine.
