Days after Donald Trump last took office in 2017, Google co-founder Sergey Brin joined a protest against the new administration’s immigration policies, warning they threatened the US’s “fundamental values”.

On Monday, he joined more than a dozen billionaires in the prime seats at Trump’s second inauguration, applauding a man who has pledged to deport millions of migrants, to use the levers of American justice to pursue political opponents and to launch sweeping tariffs.

Trump’s inauguration ceremony in the US Capitol underscored the president’s deepening ties to titans of industry and the shifting stances of business leaders who previously scorned him. Four of the world’s five richest men were placed more prominently than members of his own cabinet, with some of their spouses occupying seats at the expense of governors and members of congress.