The controversial three-day affair drew local protests<\/a> and eye-rolling around the world, but in Plank\u2019s eyes, ultimately, the billionaire couple did it anyway because \u201cthey\u2019re rich, but they probably want to be cool even more.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cPeople who have a lot of money and feel secure in that don\u2019t do these lavish displays of wealth. To your point, they do private things,\u201d Plank told host Joanna Coles. \u201cI think it was almost less about the money and more about, \u2018Look at all these friends that we have. Look at all these fancy people who like us.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The 200 guests of the Amazon founder and former journalist included<\/a> Leonardo DiCaprio, Orlando Bloom, Tom Brady, much of the Kardashian clan, Oprah Winfrey, Gayle King, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, Karlie Kloss and husband Joshua Kushner, Usher, and Sydney Sweeney. Many of them arrived<\/a> on private jets, with more than 95 reportedly expected to land in the historic city that is at real risk of disappearing under rising sea levels.<\/p>\n Coles suggested the brash display happened, perhaps in part because Donald Trump\u2014a man whose maximalist inclinations have left the Oval Office draped in gold<\/a>\u2014\u201chas given permission to everybody to release their inner vulgarian.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt used to be that billionaires were, for the most part, relatively discreet about their wealth,\u201d Coles observed. \u201cNow it seems to be like, \u2018No, we\u2019re going to show off as much as we possibly can, and we\u2019re really going to enjoy it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAs the confetti settles in Venice,\u201d she continued, \u201cin New York, we are now wrestling with a Democratic socialist who\u2019s won the New York primary.\u201d <\/p>\n A previously little-known state lawmaker, Zohran Mamdani, stunned<\/a> former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic contest for New York City mayor last week after running on a platform of making the city more affordable for working-class people.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I can\u2019t help feeling the two are connected,\u201d Coles added.<\/p>\n Plank suggested the Bezos wedding could catalyze progressive messaging focused on the working class and economic justice, pointing to recent global backlash to extreme wealth and inequality\u2014from Zohran\u2019s win in New York to a defiant Pride march<\/a> in Hungary. She also discussed the public disgust over Vogue<\/a>\u2018s S\u00e1nchez bridal cover, noting, \u201cI think a lot of people feel powerless right now.\u201d<\/p>\n And as all this plays out, senators are debating over a spending bill at the heart of Trump\u2019s domestic agenda, which would gut social safety net programs like Medicaid, hand tax breaks to the wealthy and hike the national debt by trillions. <\/p>\n The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that close to 12 million Americans would become uninsured by 2034 if the bill passes.<\/p>\n Wheelchair users protesting<\/a> the cuts to Medicaid were zip-tied and arrested by Capitol Hill police last week in a stunning scene caught on video.<\/p>\n Plank spoke of the \u201ccontrast\u201d between those images and a Bezos yacht foam party<\/a> and private jet bonanza.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was something very ironic about my paper straw disintegrating in my mouth as I was watching Lauren Sanchez, you know, inherit $260 billion,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cI want rich people to have a great summer. I really do,\u201d she added. \u201cAnd it will be a lot easier if we had proper taxation on everybody, and we had social services that weren\u2019t being taken away to create a tax cut for rich people to have other swimming pools and other private jets at the cost of lifesaving services for for people who do pay taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n New episodes of The Daily Beast Podcast are released every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Follow our new feed on your favorite podcast platform at beast.pub\/dailybeastpod<\/a> and subscribe on YouTube<\/a> to watch full episodes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jeff Bezos and Lauren S\u00e1nchez\u2019s lavish nuptials spiraled into a tone-deaf circus that laid bare the grotesque gap…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":29522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[64,4061,25222,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-29521","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-jeff-bezos","10":"tag-the-daily-beast-podcast","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114777348109381546","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Amazon](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/CSAZATPTANG3LHLIK5SZFF4AMM.jpg\")
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and media personality-turned helicopter pilot Lauren Sanchez Bezos were married in Venice on Friday. @laurensanchezbezos via Reuters <\/p>\n![\"Lauren](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/QZQBMC5RVJHN5EYFCUZERELK4U.jpg\")
Lauren Sanchez on the balcony of Hotel Aman during her wedding weekend. Stefano Mazzola\/GC Images <\/p>\n