Audio By Carbonatix
Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos has become the latest billionaire to meet Donald Trump at his Florida resort.
He was seen entering Mar-a-Lago on Wednesday night on his way to dinner with the president-elect, in a video posted on social media.
US media reported that Elon Musk joined the pair. Mr Musk later tweeted "It was a great conversation".
Mr Bezos has pledged $1m (£780,000) to Trump's inauguration fund, one of several donations pledged by tech bosses.
Mr Bezos has large business interests with the US government through several of his companies, including Amazon's cloud computing division and Blue Origin, his space exploration company.
Others who have travelled to Mar-a-Lago recently include Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI's Sam Altman, TikTok's Shou Zi Chew and Apple's Tim Cook.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai is also scheduled to meet Trump on Thursday.
The meetings come as Trump has both threatened and praised tech companies, accusing some of censorship and threatening to crack down on some of their business practices.
Amazon will stream Trump's 20 January inauguration on its Prime Video service, which will count as another $1m donation in-kind to his inauguration fund, according to CBS News, the BBC's US news partner.
Mr Zuckerberg of Meta – the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – has pledged $1m to the fund, as has OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman.
Mr Musk funnelled more than $250m to election efforts backing Trump, according to public records.
Trump has picked Mr Musk and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to head an effort to slash government spending. In the 2024 budget year, Mr Musk's SpaceX has US government contracts worth $3.8bn, according to government database USASpending.gov.
Mr Bezos also has significant business with the government.
Amazon Web Services was awarded a 10-year, $10bn contract with the National Security Agency in 2021. In 2023, NASA announced a $3.4bn contract with Blue Origin to build a lunar lander for a planned mission to the moon.
Just days before the November election, the Washington Post announced that it would not be endorsing a candidate for the first time in decades.
Mr Bezos explained the decision by saying endorsements create a perception of bias.
"Ending them is a principled decision, and it's the right one," he wrote in the Post.
Mr Musk and other business leaders such as financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald's CEO Howard Lutnick – Trump's pick for commerce secretary - have been part of Trump's inner circle since before the election.
But other tech leaders and billionaires have had a more distant relationship.
Trump was suspended from Facebook after the Capitol riot following his loss in the 2020 election, and later reinstated.
This time around, Mr Zuckerberg appears to have changed tack.
Latest Stories
-
Middle East crisis: Ablakwa assures all Ghanaians will be supported
4 minutes -
Voting underway in Ayawaso East as over 49,000 voters head to polls across 113 centres
14 minutes -
Bond market: Turnover rose by 43% to GH¢2.98bn
14 minutes -
Banks wrote off GH¢1.64 billion in 2025, NPL stock hits GH¢21.0 billion – BoG
19 minutes -
Let’s brace ourselves for Middle East war fallout—President Mahama to African leaders
19 minutes -
China removes three retired generals from national advisory body
21 minutes -
Andre Ayew’s 2026 World Cup inclusion won’t surprise me – Kofi Adams
22 minutes -
World Sustainability Organization launches Friend of the Earth sustainable packaging certification in Ghana
36 minutes -
14-year-old boy seriously injured following alleged abuse in Ashanti Region
41 minutes -
Nana Agradaa walks free from prison after release
45 minutes -
Man arrested for alleged assault after accident at Maamobi
54 minutes -
Government urged to review compensation fund to support vulnerable accident victims
57 minutes -
Photos: Hasaacas Ladies beat Army Ladies to go top of WPL table
57 minutes -
Let’s fix flaws in our democratic governance to preserve the 4th Republic – Boakye Agyarko
58 minutes -
Market ready for bond issuance after fiscal shock therapy — Prof Bokpin
1 hour
