At Elite Events, Ultra-Wealthy Rebuff Their Critics

As the world’s wealthy gathered in displays of money and influence on both US coasts this week, an underlying tension simmered in the background: the anti-rich sentiment sweeping the country and the billionaires trying to fight against it.

At the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, Citadel’s Ken Griffin railed against New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani for singling him out in a plan to tax second homes, while real estate mogul Barry Sternlicht decried blue states’ broader campaigns to squeeze more levies from the rich. At Manhattan’s Met Gala, Sergey Brin said he’s “very happy” after exiting California, which is facing a potential wealth tax he vehemently opposes.

While both venues have long provided opportunities for billionaires, executives and celebrities to mingle and muse, this year’s gatherings came amid mounting strains on many US households. The K-shaped economy is deepening divides between rich Americans and lower-income people facing elevated prices for food, gas and housing. In the wealth epicenters of California and New York, the prospect of new levies — and the rhetoric around them — is stirring billionaire backlash.

The Met Gala, one of the world’s biggest fundraisers, drew protests for being an emblem of excess while also showing how private philanthropy helps sustain one of New York’s most prominent cultural institutions. At the Milken confab, where the biggest names in finance and investing gathered at the Beverly Hilton and Waldorf Astoria, the wealth debate played out in panel discussions and private meetings.

In the gathering’s home state of California, a healthcare union says it has enough signatures for a ballot measure that would levy a one-time tax on billionaires’ net worth. In advance of the potential move, billionaires including Brin, fellow Google co-founder Larry Page and venture capitalist Peter Thiel have left the state. Howard Schultz, the former head of Starbucks Corp., recently moved to Miami from Washington state, which passed a new tax on household incomes of $1 million or more.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-05-06/met-gala-milken-conference-are-venues-for-billionaires-to-rebuff-critics?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc3ODA5Njg2MCwiZXhwIjoxNzc4NzAxNjYwLCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJURUtRQVdLSkg2WEgwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJDNjgyQTUwQzJCRDM0MTFCQTgwQjEwQjZEQjczQzM1MSJ9.W2J2_KNNr_RyNk4zpi2cNcjw8mRWUrNF6b9VjYBi4yI