Archive photo from Trump's inauguration in 2017
The countdown to US President Donald Trump's inauguration on January 20 has begun and VIP tickets for the ceremony are already sold out, with businessmen offering huge sums to attend. Included at the VIP guests is Greek-American billionaire and personal friend of Trump, John Catsimatidis.
Alina Loi
Trump's inauguration will take place at the Capitol and, as the Associated Press reports, donation platforms have been disabled after available seats have been filled and VIP tickets sold out.
In fact, donors who have donated more than EUR 1 million to the European Union have not yet been able to do so. Dollars wait on waiting lists to find a ticket they may never get their hands on.
However, donations continue, with businessmen expecting nothing in return, although there will be events over the three days of January 18-20. The committee responsible has raised over EUR 170 million. dollars and soon this amount will exceed 200 million. dollars. In fact, the figure of EUR 107 million has already been far exceeded. dollars raised for Trump's inauguration in 2017.
Among those who donated large sums are global entrepreneurs such as Apple's Tim Cook, OpenAI's Sam Altman, Uber's Dara Kosrovshahi, but also Google, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and, of course, Jeff Bezos' Amazon and Zuckerberg's Meta.
What about donations?
If a donor donates, for example, $100,000, they will take a picture with the new president, and there will be 12-13 dances in which the presidential couple will take part and dance.
VIP tickets have sold out, while major fashion houses are vying for Melania Trump, with what she will eventually wear being an enigma.
As for the official guests, according to information so far, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been invited, but he will not attend, nor will the President of the People's Republic of China, Xi Jinping.
Russian President Vladimir Putin was reportedly not invited, nor was Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelensky. This is not surprising, however, as it is not customary to invite heads of foreign states.
Greece will be represented by the Greek ambassador in Washington, Deputy Justice Minister Yiannis Bougas told parliament. "No heads of state have been invited to the event. Governments are represented by their ambassadors. And ELAS will be represented, as is always the case, by our ambassador in Washington," Bougas said.
New Democracy parliamentary spokeswoman Anna Efthymiou said that "no government has been officially invited" and that "we will be represented with our ambassador".
Among our Greek-American expatriates, one of the coveted and sought-after positions at the inauguration of US President Trump has been secured by John Catsimatidis, a close friend of Donald Trump, who also participates in the dinners regularly held by the new US president.
