At the White House dinner, leaders of major tech companies praised Trump
On Thursday, a dinner party was held at the White House. The event was organised by Melania Trump, with leaders of the largest US tech companies invited, and the topic of the meeting was the development of artificial intelligence.
Who was present:
- Tim Cook (Apple)
- Sam Altman (OpenAI)
- Mark Zuckerberg (Meta)
- Sundar Pichai and Sergey Brin (Alphabet)
- Satya Nadella and Bill Gates (Microsoft)
- Arvind Krishna (IBM)
- Lisa Su (AMD)
- Safra Katz (Oracle)
What they said
At the dinner, the most influential tech leaders took turns sincerely and enthusiastically praising Trump. Altman thanked Trump for being such a business-minded and innovative president. Tim Cook thanked him for setting a tone that allowed for significant investments in the US, which speaks to his leadership. Satya Nadella said that Trump has been very helpful with his policies. Lisa Su noted the speed of growth that the company experienced in the first months of Trump's presidency. Safra Katz flattered directly and selflessly - according to him, Trump has unleashed American innovation and creativity, and any job he takes on enables America to win.
Mark Zuckerberg was the most sincerely happy to talk to the president. In 2021, Facebook blocked Trump's account for calling for the storming of the Capitol. He held a grudge, and in 2024, he argued against blocking TikTok, saying that Facebook would then double its business, and I don't want it to prosper. Trump explicitly called Zuckerberg an enemy of the people (whether or not this was a deliberate reference to the worst crime in communist countries is unknown) and repeatedly argued that Zuckerberg should be in prison. Since then, Zuckerberg has consistently publicly expressed support for Trump and the latter's rhetoric has gradually softened.
Mark Zuckerberg and Donald Trump. Illustration: AFP via Getty Images
At this dinner, Trump asked Google's Sundar Pichai how he felt about yesterday. He was referring to the conclusion of the antitrust trial, which could potentially lead to the sale of the Chrome browser. Sundar replied that he was glad that day was over. Trump put pressure on the trial and Pichai is grateful to him for that: "Appreciate that your administration had a constructive dialogue and we were able to get it to some resolution". Trump stressed that this trial began during Biden's term.
Trump asked the audience how much they planned to invest in building a production base in the US and was pleased to hear billions of dollars in response.
What it means:
Probably having no success in the foreign policy arena, Trump gathered people dependent on him to compensate for the insult of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in China. At the same time, the absence of Elon Musk and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang shows that not everyone in the tech corporation camp is invested in the party's policy. I wonder how American dissidents will be repressed?
Trump is known for his vindictiveness - after losing the 2021 election, he accused many of his team members of treason and began to openly antagonise them. Therefore, for his second cadence, he recruited a new team - more odious, but loyal to Trump personally. For example, J.D. Vance took the place of Mike Pence as vice president. This is not business, it's all very personal.
Source: 9to5mac.com
