Uber and its CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, donated a mixed $2 million to Donald Trump’s inauguration, following a line of tech corporations and their rich house owners bending the knee.
Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Apple’s Tim Cook dinner, Google’s Sundar Pichai, and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos are all scheduled to go to or have just lately visited Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property. Even TikTok CEO Shou Chew rushed to Trump’s Florida property forward of a ruling that might ban the favored social media app.
Bezos, Zuckerberg, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are additionally making ready to donate $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund or have already performed so.
“President Trump will lead our country into the age of AI, and I am eager to support his efforts to ensure America stays ahead,” Altman stated in a press release to CBS Information.
This show of ring-kissing may shock those that recall Trump waging conflict towards Zuckerberg and Bezos in his first time period.
In 2020, Trump allegedly stepped in the way in which of a $10 billion contract between Bezos’ Amazon and the Pentagon, handing the large-dollar deal to Microsoft as an alternative. On the time, Amazon stated the choice was Trump’s approach of enacting revenge on the detrimental reporting popping out of the Bezos-owned Washington Submit. A yr later, with Biden in workplace, the Pentagon reversed its resolution and included Amazon within the contract.
Trump additionally made loads of assaults towards Zuckerberg (together with threats to throw him in jail). Nevertheless, Zuckerberg appeared to place all of that behind him when dined at Mar-a-Lago late final month.
One Washington lobbyist defined why there was such a change in tone, saying these tech giants don’t have a lot of a selection this time round.
“It takes a lot for an uber-wealthy, creative-type CEO, many of whom lean left, to suck it up and deal with Trump,” the lobbyist advised Monetary Instances. “But what choice do they have?”
A few of these tech house owners could also be kissing as much as Trump this time round within the hopes he will probably be extra lax than Joe Biden’s regulation efforts towards massive biz. Plus, as many have claimed, Trump loves flattery.
Then again, Bezos may be sucking as much as Trump for different causes. Earlier this week, a Senate probe discovered Amazon has been manipulating its information to conceal the quantity of employee accidents. With Trump in his good graces, Bezos’ possibilities of maneuvering difficult lawsuits and rules may be simpler.
To make his stance on employee’s rights extra obvious, Bezos has additionally teamed up with Trump’s billionaire “first buddy” Elon Musk to assault the Nationwide Labor Relations Board, which has traditionally fought for employees’ rights.
The NLRB has discovered fault with each Amazon and SpaceX. Certainly, which may have one thing to do with two of the richest males going after this system.
