Donald Trump took the oath for a historic second term on Monday, completing his extraordinary comeback. Tech billionaires, foreign diplomats and CEOs were seen sitting prominently on the dais in the US Capitol during his first speech after the oath. They were seen cheering and clapping as he pledged to “preserve, protect and defend” the US constitution and listed out a raft of things he aimed to achieve during his term. And one of these moments, which featured Trump’s close aide Elon Musk, has gone viral.
During the speech, Trump vowed to “pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars”. As soon as he said that, the camera panned to Musk, who aims to establish a human settlement on Mars with the help of his prototype rocket Starship. An elated Musk was seen raising two thumbs up and clapping in response to Trump’s remarks.
Elon Musk’s reaction to Trump saying today: “We will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars by launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars.” pic.twitter.com/XMLQC2OTuu
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) January 20, 2025
Earlier, a Reuters report said that Elon Musk’s dream of transporting humans to Mars will become a bigger national priority under the Trump administration. NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to use SpaceX’s Starship rocket to put humans on the moon as a proving ground for later Mars missions, is expected to focus more on the Red Planet under Trump and target uncrewed missions there this decade, Reuters sources said.
Elon Musk, who has contributed $277 million to the president’s campaign, was seen dancing onstage at a Trump rally wearing an “Occupy Mars” T-shirt in October
One of the strongest supporters of Trump, Musk has been appointed to co-lead the Department of Government Efficiency to advise the White House on cutbacks to public spending and has spent much of the past two months at Mar-a-Lago.
Besides Elon Musk, several other tech billionaires – including Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos – were given prime positions at Trump’s inauguration.
The tech tycoons, whose companies are among the world’s most valuable, have spent the ten weeks since the election courting favor with Trump, marking a dramatic shift from Silicon Valley’s more hostile response to his first term four years ago.