I.T. News – Nov 10, 2024

1 - Before the Election, Tech C.E.O.s Were Quietly Courting Trump

New York Times. Nov 7, 2024.

When Donald J. Trump first campaigned for president eight years ago, tech executives largely ignored him. They later atoned for their disregard by making a televised walk through the lobby of Trump Tower in New York for a 90-minute meeting with the president-elect.

This election cycle, tech leaders have tried to avoid making the same mistake. Executives such as Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai started reaching out to Mr. Trump directly in the weeks and months before the first ballot was cast.

They flattered him. They shared their troubles. They criticized his opposition. They emphasized common enemies.

The change in strategy speaks to what business leaders learned during the first Trump presidency and illustrates how they have adapted their approach before Mr. Trump returns to the White House. Believing that his political positions are fluid and his actions are often transactional, they are forging direct relationships they hope will benefit their businesses.

In his first term, Mr. Trump criticized tech companies for manipulating coverage of him on their platforms and opposing his agenda. He was punitive with those he considered antagonists. In one instance, Amazon accused Mr. Trump of pressuring the Pentagon to cancel a cloud computing contract with the company because its founder, Jeff Bezos, owned The Washington Post.

But Mr. Trump heaped praise on Mr. Cook, the chief executive of Apple. He liked that Mr. Cook called him directly to discuss business and economic issues. Such direct engagement helped Apple avoid tariffs on many of its products, even as the Trump administration cracked down on other companies that were manufacturing in China.

This time, tech chief executives have been following Mr. Cook’s playbook. Mr. Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Meta, spoke to Mr. Trump after an attempted assassination in July. Mr. Pichai, Google‘s chief executive, told Mr. Trump that his campaign stop at a McDonald’s restaurant was one of the biggest things ever on Google. And Andy Jassy, the chief executive of Amazon, introduced himself with a phone call, while Mr. Bezos, his predecessor, called Mr. Trump to praise his resilience after the July shooting.

The executives never offered a public endorsement, but after Mr. Trump’s victory on Tuesday, they feted him with congratulations on X. Mr. Cook, who was typically the last of his peers to weigh in on hot-button issues during the previous Trump administration, offered the final word, saying: “Congratulations President Trump on your victory! We look forward to engaging with you and your administration.”

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a Yale management professor who has advised executives and Mr. Trump over the years, said the direct outreach and quiet wooing of Mr. Trump were “the right thing” to do, noting the executives’ responsibility to shareholders to have a relationship with whoever is in the White House.

“They were building a rapport,” he said. “And that’s the right way to do it — establish personal eye contact and get a foundation for the future.”

Meta and Google declined to comment, while Amazon and Apple didn’t respond to requests for comment. Some of the details of their chief executives’ outreach were shared by Mr. Trump during several podcasts and an interview with New York magazine. Others were reported previously by The New York Times and The Washington Post.

The tech titans’ private outreach to Mr. Trump has contrasted with the public embrace by Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, and many of Silicon Valley’s chatterbox venture capitalists. Mr. Musk hit the campaign trail for Mr. Trump in Pennsylvania and turned his personal feed on X into a Trump-advocacy channel, while venture capitalists donated generously to Mr. Trump’s campaign in hopes his administration would be more friendly to their pet causes — crypto, antitrust and taxes than President