NEWSLETTER
The largest technology companies and their executive directors donated millions to the inauguration of President Trump, organized parties and black tie dinners in his honor, and allowed him to announce and receive credit for new multi -million dollar manufacturing projects.
But less than three months after the president's second mandate, Trump has barely returned his luxurious gestures with favors.
The radical tariffs imposed last week will squeeze the Apple iPhone supply chain and make it much more expensive for amazon, Meta, Google and Microsoft build supercomputers to feed artificial intelligence. The president has reduced federal funds for research on emerging technologies such as ai and quantum computing. Its immigration repression has encouraged fears that it will cut pipes for technological talent.
The Trump administration has also indicated that an aggressive regulatory position on the range of the largest technology companies will continue, starting next week with a historical antimonopoly trial to break target, the owner of facebook, instagram and WhatsApp.
Since the inauguration, the combined market value of amazon, Apple, Google, Meta and Microsoft has fallen 22 percent to $ 10 billion. And the Nasdaq Technological Index has dropped 21 percent.
The efforts to court Mr. Trump are very difficult from the industry approach to their first administration, when many technological leaders were openly hostile towards the president. With a face and adulation, executives were waiting this time that Trump could show technology more deference, including his effort to deregulate industries such as energy and cars.
On the other hand, the genuflection of the main leaders of Silicon Valley can be a bad reading of how to succeed in Trump's Washington, according to experts in democratic and republican policies.
The relationship that technology executives have with the president has been a “unidirectional street,” said Gigi Sohn, former main advisor of the Federal Communications Commission under the Biden Administration. “They give him everything, and he promises nothing, which in this case is a good thing.”
That has not prevented them from trying. Last week, Meta executive director Mark Zuckerberg was in the White House to try to persuade the administration to liquidate the antimonopoly demand of the Federal Trade Commission against Meta. Technological leaders, including Sussian Pichai, executive director of Google, have also visited the White House in recent weeks.
Companies have said they want to commit to Mr. Trump in a variety of issues and are analyzing the long -range effects of their policies. Apple, Google, Meta and amazon declined to comment.
The White House did not respond to a request for comments.
The hostilities between the technology industry and Mr. Trump date back to at least in 2016, when multiple technology executives supported Hillary Clinton for president and donated to their campaign. After Trump was elected, technological leaders criticized the president's immigration prohibition for Muslims and his skepticism about COVID-19 vaccines.
Trump's first administration adopted a difficult regulatory position on the industry, presenting antitrust demands against Google and Meta. He redes against social networks and other Internet giants for censoring and accumulating too much power. He also blamed the platforms for contributing to their electoral loss in 2020.
The public tone of the technology industry to Trump abruptly changed last year after it was injured in an attempt to murder.
Then, Mr. Zuckerberg called him a “rude.” Jeff Bezos, the founder of amazon, praised Trump for “Grace Under Fire.” Elon Musk, who directs the company of Cometes Spacex, the Electric Automobile manufacturer Tesla and the social media platform x, backed Trump and went to play and donate $ 300 million to his campaign.
After the elections, the Executive Director of Apple, Tim Cook, along with Meta, Google and amazon, donated $ 1 million each to the inauguration. Several of the executives made trips to Mar-A-Lago, Mr. Trump's complex in Palm Beach, Florida, and at the inauguration, Mr. Musk, Mr. Bezos, Mr. Zuckerberg, Mr. Cook and Mr. Pichai appeared on the stage next to the cabinet members.
“If we look at the inauguration, look at the people who were at that stage, here was a world who went totally against my first time,” Trump said recently in an interview with Clay Travis by Outkick, a sports and news site owned by Fox.
There have been some benefits. Mr. Musk is now a close advisor to the president, and critics say that his business will probably obtain rewards of his proximity. Trump has also signed executive orders that delay a sale or prohibition of Tiktok, as ordered by a law approved last year about security concerns about the Chinese matrix company of the application, Bytedance.
Despite reducing its federal financing, Trump has opened the door to a continuous regulatory touch of light on ai, which has declared its highest priority to overcome China in a race for global technological leadership. Last month, Google, Microsoft, Meta and other technological giants presented suggestions, asking the administration to stay out of the way.
And American regulators have almost completely dismantled a repression of the government of years against cryptographic industry, a volatile sector full of fraud, scams and robbery. That benefits companies, including the risk capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz, a large investor in space.
But technological companies still face intensifying pressures under the current Trump administration.
The new leaders designated for the Department of Justice and the FTC have not shown support signs in a series of antitrust demands filed against Google, Meta, amazon and Apple.
Trump chose Gail Slater, a veteran and critical lawyer for vocal technology, to direct the antimonopoly division in the Department of Justice. Trump emphasized the importance of his role to suffocate the powerful Giants of Silicon Valley during his ad.
“Big tech has become wild for years, suffocating competition in our most innovative sector and, as we all know, using its market power to take energetic measures against the rights of so many Americans, as well as those of Little tech!” Trump said in a publication about Truth Social, his social media platform.
The president also appointed Andrew Ferguson, who has expressed concern about the power of social media companies, as president of the FTC next week, Mr. Ferguson will lead the antimonopoly trial against Meta, in which the government accuses facebook of Buying instagram and WhatsApp almost a decade to cement its monopoly on social networks.
It is not clear if Mr. Zuckerberg's efforts to ensure an agreement will succeed. But ultimately, the president will make any decision on whether or not, Mr. Ferguson said last week at a conference held by the Incubator of Start of technology and Combinator in Washington.
“The head of the president of the Executive Branch, and I think it is important for me to obey legal orders,” he said when asked if he would drop a demand as the goal if Mr. Trump indicates.
“I think the president acknowledges that we have to enforce the laws, so it would surprise me a lot if something like this happened,” he added.
Perhaps the biggest blow to the technology industry came in the form of tariffs last week. Apple, one of the most affected companies, produces 90 percent of the iPhones that it sells worldwide in China, where tariffs are expected to have 20 percent, 34 percent increase this week.
“These tariffs will increase consumer prices and force our commercial partners to retaliate,” said Gary Shapiro, executive director of the Consumer technology Association, a commercial group. “The Americans will become poorer due to these rates.”
(Tagstotranslate) Computers and Internet
