When President Donald Trump was flanked at his inauguration by tech titans Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Sundar Pichai, with the CEOs of Apple and TikTok nearby, he was surrounded not just by a handful of the wealthiest men on the planet — but by executives who oversee platforms that, in some combination, virtually all Americans engage with.
For a president whose rise, fall and comeback are all intertwined with his innate ability to capture attention online and on TV, those executives hold the keys to algorithmic and policy tweaks that could depress or further enhance his political — and financial — standing.
In turn, Trump could influence policy in emerging technologies in ways favorable or unfavorable to the executives and their companies.
In the weeks since Trump has been sworn in, he's given Musk wide-ranging authority to implement rapid change at federal agencies. And Zuckerberg, who has taken several steps to pivot Meta to the right, was at the White House on Thursday.
The dynamic has the chance to reshape what was long an adversarial relationship between conservatives and Big Tech companies, which has been marked by years of disdain over content moderation practices and threats to strip legal protections.
What Republicans are saying: Conservatives see a chance to advance their tech priorities on a host of fronts where they may not have seen possibilities before. But they say they still harbor skepticism of the platforms that recent policy shifts and photo-ops have not softened. For example, Steve Bannon, the influential former top White House aide under Trump, has continued to rail against the tech leaders and their agenda even as they become cozier with Trump.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said one reason Big Tech leaders are changing their tune is “that they know how to read an election return.” Hawley, who has challenged tech companies on antitrust grounds and data policy, among other areas, said their shift does not mean they should now be fully trusted.
“I’m deeply concerned about their monopolistic power. That hasn’t changed at all, their ability to turn right back on the control of news and information, their control over our personal data — none of that has changed,” Hawley said. “I think it’s a good thing that through the election and through Trump’s influence, they have changed their approach, currently, to political speech.”
What Democrats are saying: Democrats and their liberal allies are trying to figure out how to swing the momentum in tech back toward them, while expressing concern about what the new Trump-tech alliance could mean for everything from control of information online to wealth inequality and the nuts-and-bolts functions of government itself.
“I convened tech leaders over a year ago to discuss the rightward swing in Silicon Valley and the impact it would have,” Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., whose district includes a slice of Silicon Valley, said in a statement.
“For Democrats to win these leaders back, it is critical for us to prove we are the party of the future, of innovation, and of entrepreneurship,” he continued. “If we fail too, we miss an opportunity to harness tech for our vision and make incredible advancements in personalized medicine, efficient energy use, and building wealth in communities that have been left behind.”
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