Tech CEOs: Business as usual won’t work with the Trump administration

Donald Trump’s savvy use of social media was essential to his rise to political power in 2016, and his alliance with tech mogul Elon Musk, owner of the platform X, played a significant role in his successful bid this year to retake the White House.

In the wake of Trump’s Nov. 5 victory, Musk isn’t the only technology industry leader cheering on the president-elect. Other Silicon Valley CEOs have been falling all over themselves to herald his win and positioning their companies to garner business from his administration.

The tech industry has not always been supportive of Trump’s disruptive brand of politics. In the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, mob attack on the U.S. Capitol, tech CEOs — although not Musk — were prominent in the ranks of corporate leaders who condemned then-President Trump for inciting a violent attempt to overturn the results of a free and fair election.

"The shocking events of the last 24 hours clearly demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden," Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote on Jan. 7, 2021, justifying Trump’s banishment from Facebook.

"His decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters at the Capitol building has rightly disturbed people in the U.S. and around the world.”

But since Trump’s victory, Zuckerberg and the chief executives of other leading U.S. technology companies, including Apple’s Tim Cook, Google’s Sundar Pichai and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, all of whom publicly expressed disapproval of the Jan. 6 insurrection and the politicians who encouraged it, have rushed to congratulate the president-elect and hail opportunities to collaborate with his administration.

Zuckerberg initiated a face-to-face meeting with Trump at his West Palm Beach, Fla., club, Mar-a-Lago, on Nov. 27, during which Meta’s chief executive reportedly extended warm wishes to his host upon re-taking the presidency.

In an earlier post on Threads, Zuckerberg had this to say: “Congratulations to President Trump on a decisive victory. We have great opportunities ahead of us as a country. Looking forward to working with you and your administration.”

The tech CEOs’ precise goals may vary. Google, Meta, Apple and Amazon all face federal antitrust lawsuits they may hope Trump will modify or drop. Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX, has billions of dollars in ongoing contracts with the U.S. government and could benefit from closer federal ties.

Zuckerberg may be trying to repair his damaged relationship with the Trump camp, which has joined other conservatives in Washington in accusing the company of censoring right-leaning viewpoints. Trump himself has threatened Zuckerberg with prison for supposedly plotting against him during the 2020 election.

(Zuckerberg also may be trying to blunt Musk’s animosity — the rivals made headlines in 2023 challenging each other to a physical fight.)

On the very day Zuckerberg met with Trump, Stephen Miller, Trump’s incoming deputy chief of staff for policy, told Fox News that the Meta CEO “has been very clear about his desire to be a supporter of and a participant in, this change we’re seeing all around America and the world, with this reform movement that Donald Trump is leading.”

A Meta spokesperson offered a more tempered public comment, saying, “Mark was grateful for the invitation to join President Trump for dinner and the opportunity to meet with members of his team about the incoming administration.”

Business leaders are not obliged at this point to go to the barricades in opposition to the president-elect. But rather than scramble to curry favor with a president who has demonstrated disregard for democratic norms and aggressively sought to undermine the rule of law — features of American democracy that have allowed business to flourish — tech CEOs should call for Trump to exercise prudence and moderation as he returns to power.

They have not done that; nor have they chosen the even more cautious alternative of maintaining a watchful silence while waiting to see whether the new president acts on his more unsettling rhetoric.

Sadly, the tech industry has chosen a strategy of abject acquiescence. The newsletter Popular Information, led by Judd Legum, collected striking examples of tech leaders conveniently forgetting their previous condemnations of Trump’s attempt to undermine democracy to heap praise on him in the wake of last month’s election.

Zuckerberg, for one, offered no congratulatory message to Joe Biden after his 2020 victory, Popular Information noted.

Microsoft’s Nadella congratulated Trump on his Nov. 5 victory and said the company is “looking forward to engaging with you and your administration to drive innovation forward that creates new growth and opportunity for the United States and the world.”

Nadella did not personally congratulate Biden after his victory in 2020, although he did repost a message from Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president and second-ranking executive.

In a separate interview published on Nov. 21, Smith elaborated on at least one way that Microsoft would like to “engage with” the Trump administration. Smith told The Information, a tech industry trade publication, that Microsoft’s artificial intelligence products can help cut government spending and boost efficiency.

“AI is probably one of the most helpful tools available to make government more efficient and less costly,” Smith said. “We could use a Manhattan Project just to put technology to more effective work to improve government across the board.”

Smith’s allusion to “a Manhattan Project,” the World War Two initiative to build an atomic bomb, appears to refer to Trump’s announcement that he will form a Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE. Trump has said that DOGE will purge career civil servants and replace them with partisan loyalists. It will be led by Musk, who gave the Trump campaign hundreds of millions of dollars and used X to spread conspiracy theories and other dubious pro-Trump content, and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.

A day before the publication of the Smith interview, Musk and Ramaswamy outlined similar plans to deploy “advanced technology” to slash the career federal workforce in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.

Smith, to be sure, did not say that Microsoft endorsed any specific goals for thinning the ranks of career civil servants or eliminating agencies. He did not champion Ramaswamy’s musing, for example, about scrapping the Department of Education, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

But Musk’s and Ramaswamy’s ambitions are not a secret. Should Microsoft be seeking the pole position in the race to provide AI for this duo’s initiative?

This is not a conventional incoming administration. Tech CEOs, like business leaders in general, need to move cautiously when dealing with Trump and his lieutenants. More is at stake than the usual lobbying for government contracts or lower tax rates.

This is not a time for business as usual.

Paul Barrett is the deputy director of the Center for Business and Human Rights at New York University's Stern School of Business.

Topics

CEO of logistics giant C.H. Robinson sees opportunity in Trump tariffs, AI

"The freight still has to move. It might just move at a different starting point, and we would still be there to move that," C.H. Robinson CEO Dave Bozeman said.
CNBC - 19h
As Messi, 2026 World Cup clocks tick, MLS seems content with business as usual

It seems that the league just isn't prepared to expend anywhere near enough to reach the upper echelons of the sport anytime soon.
Yahoo Sports - 2d
Trump Picks Kelly Loeffler, a Top Donor, to Head Small Business Administration

During a brief stint as a senator from Georgia, she became a fervent supporter of the president-elect’s agenda near the end of his first term.
The New York Times - 5d
Move Over Elon: Tech Billionaires Make More Inroads in Trump’s Administration—And He’s Even Quoting Them Directly

VC David Sacks will be the White House’s AI and crypto czar, and Trump directly invoked a Marc Andreessen screed while announcing a DOJ appointment.
Inc. - 5d
Trump Round 2: How Business Services Companies Are Preparing for the New Administration

Companies that offer HR and IT services are gearing up for four more years of MAGA.
Inc. - 6d
Trump nominates financial software giant’s CEO to lead Social Security Administration

President-elect Trump tapped financial software giant CEO Frank Bisignano late Wednesday to lead the Social Security Administration (SSA) in his second administration. “Frank is a business leader, ...
The Hill - 6d
Trump picks former Sen. Kelly Loeffler for small business administrator

President-elect Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he will nominate former Sen.
NBC News - Dec. 4
OpenAI CEO 'not that worried' about Elon Musk's influence in Trump administration

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is locked in a legal dispute with rival Elon Musk
ABC News - Dec. 4
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Says Elon Musk Won’t Abuse New Friendship With Trump

AI leader Altman said today that he thinks ‘Elon will do the right thing’ when it comes to the Trump connection
Inc. - Dec. 4