Trump pep-talks technology titans
Twitter CEO not invited
LOS ANGELES, Dec 15, (Agencies): Donald Trump, at a meeting Wednesday high above Manhattan in Trump Tower, hosted more than a dozen top execs of US technology firms -- where the presidentelect effusively praised them and sounded out ways to create American jobs.
“This is a truly amazing group of people,” Trump said at the gathering, according to a New York Times report. “There’s nobody like you in the world. In the world! There’s nobody like the people in this room.” He added that anything that his administration can do to help the industry, “we’re going to be there for you.”
Tech leaders who attended the 90-minute meeting included Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Apple’s Tim Cook, Google’s Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, Oracle’s Safra Catz, Palantir’s Alex Karp, Intel’s Brian Krzanich, Tesla’s Elon Musk, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Cisco’s Chuck Robbins, and IBM’s Ginni Rometty.
Perhaps the most notable development to come out of the confab was Trump’s snub of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. The billionaire -- an incessant tweeter -- did not invite Dorsey reportedly because Twitter had turned down the Trump campaign’s efforts to buy an emoji for “#CrookedHillary.”
Trump’s overall upbeat and convivial reception of Silicon Valley’s elite stood in contrast to his previous attacks on tech companies. During the 2016 campaign, he had urged Apple to move its manufacturing to the US and called for a boycott of its products after Apple refused to assist law enforcement unlock an iPhone as part of a terrorism investigation. Trump also labeled Amazon a monopoly that is dodging taxes, and had accused Facebook, Twitter and Google of somehow suppressing negative news about Hillary Clinton.
The tech CEO summit showpiece was organized by venture capitalist Peter Thiel, now a Trump adviser, who was the most prominent technology leader to back the candidate. Others joining the summit included VP-elect Mike Pence; Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, his children Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and Eric Trump; chief of staff Reince Priebus; and senior adviser Steve Bannon, executive chairman of Breitbart News.
Transition
According to Trump’s transition team, topics at the meeting included how to create more jobs for American workers; eliminating barriers preventing American companies from doing business in other countries; America’s competitive trade dynamic and market access with China; and repatriation of
American profits “kept overseas by prohibitive tax rates.”
The summit also covered protection of intellectual-property rights, improving the US’s data security, and the need for greater vocational education opportunities.
According to Trump’s transition team, the president-elect suggested reconvening the tech leaders again in the future, perhaps as frequently as every quarter.
Reporters were allowed to witness only the first moments of the meeting and most of the attendees departed without comment. But Bezos, who is also owner of The Washington Post, which has been a frequent target of Trump complaints about campaign coverage, said he found the meeting to be “very productive” and said he “shared the view that the administration should make innovation one of its key pillars.”
No industry was more open in its contempt for Trump during the campaign. In an open letter published in July, more than 140 technology executives, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists skewered him as a “disaster for innovation.”
And Trump’s denigration of Mexicans,
his pledge to deport millions of immigrants now living in the US illegally and his crude remarks about women were widely viewed as racist, authoritarian and sexist by an industry that prides itself on its tolerance.
Also: LOS ANGELES:
When executives of some of the country’s biggest tech companies crowded around a conference table in Trump Tower to meet with the President-Elect Wednesday, one face was curiously absent. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey hadn’t been invited to the meeting -- and a new Politico report claims that the snub was payback for Twitter refusing to run “Crooked Hillary” emoji during the election campaign.
Trump had invited executives from Google/ Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Palantir, Tesla and others to talk tech Wednesday. Photos posted from the meeting showed Apple CEO Tim Cook, Alphabet CEO Larry Page, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and other high-profile executives in attendance.