24 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY APRIL 24-30, 2025 www.montereycountynow.com Alarmed over the actions of President Donald Trump, Elon Musk and corporations bending to their will, people are using how they spend their money in protest. By Pam Marino POWER OF THE PURSE t was bitterly cold and windy in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Jan. 20, the day of President Donald J. Trump’s second inauguration. The new administration blamed the weather for moving the ceremony inside the Capitol Rotunda, where a few hundred people gathered to watch Trump take the oath of office. Included among the attendees were the four living former presidents and former vice president Kamala Harris, who lost to Trump, as has been the tradition throughout U.S. history. Also in attendance were some of the titans of the tech world and industry. Photographers snapped photos of four of the wealthiest CEOs standing in a line under the rotunda: Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Tesla’s Elon Musk. Also in attendance were TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook and several others. The sight of these wealthy men at the inauguration was a turning point for Pacific Grove resident Betsy Buchalter Adler. The retired philanthropy attorney made a conscious decision to change how she spends her money as a way to send a message to the corporations owned by some of the richest people in the world who don’t I With sales of Tesla’s flagging, President Donald Trump held an event on March 11 with Tesla CEO Elon Musk on the South Lawn of the White House to tout the company’s vehicles. Trump pledged to buy a red Model S, which starts at $73,490. The event was livestreamed on Musk’s social media platform X. COURTESY WHITE HOUSE
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