Ocasio-Cortez: Second Trump term 'billionaire feeding frenzy,' 'kiss a‑‑ race'

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said Tuesday that the second term for President Trump is a “billionaire feeding frenzy” and “kiss a‑‑ race.”

During “The Weekly Show” podcast hosted by comedian Jon Stewart, the New York Democrat said of Trump that “all of these people that were scared before about like being associated with him … from … the most common basic level to the most elite level, they're all like … they're all all-in now, because this is now a billionaire feeding frenzy.”

“It is a kiss a‑‑ race,” she added, in a clip highlighted by Mediaite.

Tech leaders including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, and SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk were at the Capitol rotunda Monday for Trump’s inauguration. Musk has been especially close with Trump in the last year, heavily backing his campaign and showing up at some of his rallies.

“I think the — what’s really important for people to understand, and like now and every day of this administration, is that you’re being ripped off,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

Earlier this week, Stewart criticized the tech moguls’ appearance at Trump’s inauguration.

“Yes, taking the place of seats normally reserved for Democratic or Republican governors, sat Zuck, Bezos, Tim Cook, Elon, Tic Tac guy, Google guy, the six guys who control maybe 20 percent of the world’s wealth and 100 percent of your nudes,” Stewart said.

“Shouldn’t this gathering be happening in a volcano’s lair near Zurich, or are we just open source Illuminati now?” he added later. “Where’s the conspiracy fun in that?”

During the president’s first term, having a group of tech moguls so tight with Trump would have been unusual. Nine years ago, many in the group had voiced concerns about Trump’s rise in politics.

The Hill has reached out to the White House, Apple, Google, Meta, Tesla, TikTok and Amazon for comment.

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