Amazon founder Jeff Bezos continues trying to ingratiate himself with Trump…and so do his companies.John Locher/AP
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“Who would you never invite back to the Met Gala?”
That’s what Late Late Show host James Corden asked Anna Wintour, then-editor-in-chief of Vogue, in 2017, during a game called “Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts.”
“Donald Trump,” the fashion executive answered, to thunderous applause. And although neither Trump nor his immediate family have been present at fashion’s biggest night since before the start of his first term, Wintour seems to have no issue with MAGA-adjacent benefactors of his administration’s assault on culture—as evidenced by this year’s lead sponsors and honorary co-chairs: Jeff and Lauren Sánchez Bezos, who were front and center at Trump’s second inauguration.
In defense of the guest list which she oversees, Wintour, who stepped down as editor-in-chief of Vogue last June but remains Vogue’s global editorial director and head of the Met Gala, told CNN that she’s “grateful” for Sánchez Bezos’ “generosity.” (The amount contributed by Sánchez Bezos and her husband, Jeff, is currently unknown.) Wintour added that Sánchez Bezos is “a great lover of costume and obviously of fashion, so we’re thrilled she’s part of the night.”
Examining the broligarchs’ foray into fashion, in which they attend shows in Milan and Paris clad in couture and court the luxury fashion industry with charity, I can’t help but feel that no matter how many runway shows they attend or which designers they wear, they still come up short in their struggle to conquer cool.
Bezos and Sánchez attended the Met Costume Institute’s spring exhibit and annual fundraiser in 2024. And Big Tech firms like Amazon, TikTok, and Apple, with their deep pockets and powerful algorithms, have been welcome sponsors of the event since the early 2010s. But this year’s benefit has attracted increased scrutiny since Silicon Valley officially hitched its wagon to the Trump train, with anti-billionaire protestors papering the New York City subway with posters calling on passersby to “boycott the Bezos Met Gala” and criticizing Amazon for its allegedly poor working conditions.
Amazon donated $1 million to Trump’s 2024 inauguration fund and subsequently spent a baffling $75 million on a vanity doc about Melania. And as owner of the Washington Post, Bezos blocked the paper from endorsing Kamala Harris ahead of the 2024 election.
While the Met Gala has long been dismissed as a gross display of wealth (tickets cost $100,000, more than the median down payment on a house in the US), the involvement of the third-richest man in the world, whitewashing his reputation through a fundraiser for one of the country’s most storied museums while contributing to Trump’s war on culture, sort of obscures the costumes with its glaring irony.
Since taking office last January, Trump has canceled National Endowment for the Arts grants, imperiling hundreds of arts organizations across the country; threatened museums via executive order to comply with his anti-“woke” agenda; and taken over the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, renaming it after himself.
Bezos isn’t just a passive observer in these attacks on arts and culture. Under his leadership, the Post laid off wide swaths of its staff as subscribers fled, shuttering its books section and dealing a severe blow to media coverage of the arts.
As the Bezoses, Wintour, and a trio of famous women greet celebrity guests on the Met steps Monday evening, socialist mayor Zohran Mamdani and first lady Rama Duwaji reportedly have other plans. (It’s probably for the best, considering the debacle over Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s 2021 “Tax the Rich” dress and recent uproar over boots Duwaji borrowed for her husband’s inauguration earlier this year.)
Still, though, I know they would have come dressed to impress—and slayed, effortlessly.
