(America Decides 2024) Big Tech CEOs are calling up Trump, seeking to rekindle their relationship with the former president ahead of Election Day
CNN —
Top executives at some of the country’s largest tech companies have sought out Donald Trump ahead of Election Day, looking to get an audience with the former president as the likelihood he returns to the Oval Office sits at a coin flip.
Trump and Apple CEO Tim Cook chatted last week about the iPhone maker’s ongoing legal issues in Europe, the former president divulged in an interview Thursday. Later in the day, Trump told a Las Vegas audience that the “head of Google,” who is CEO Sundar Pichai, called to marvel over the Republican nominee’s campaign stop slinging french fries at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s.
“He said, ‘This is one of the hottest things. We have never seen anything like this,’” Trump recalled. He retold the story Friday on Joe Rogan’s podcast and identified the executive as Pichai.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy also recently reached out to check in with the former president, two sources familiar with their phone call told CNN. And Mark Zuckerberg called him up this summer after the first failed assassination attempt on Trump, during which the Meta CEO told the Republican nominee he admired the way he handled the shooting and wished him a quick recovery, a person familiar with the conversation said. Despite their once fraught relationship, the two have spoken glowingly about each other through the media in the months since.
The stepped-up push by some of the world’s most influential Big Tech leaders to speak with the former president ahead of Election Day comes amid an exceptionally tight race between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. And it’s the latest sign of the greater business community seeking to rekindle a relationship with the former president in anticipation of a potential second term.
Trump had already counted Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X and Tesla, as a supporter and a financial force pumping more than $100 million into the machine to get him elected. Musk at one point had said he had no plans to donate to either presidential campaign after a March meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago. But lately, the world’s richest man has dangled daily $1 million cash prizes to people who register to vote and sign a petition affirming their support for the rights to free speech and bear arms, a scheme the Department of Justice has warned could be illegal. Musk has put at least $118 million into a super PAC supporting Trump’s White House bid. Other Silicon Valley executives have also used their sizable platforms and deep pockets to boost the former president.
Apple, Google and Amazon, though, are far less outwardly engaged in partisan politics than Musk and other Silicon Valley converts, but their every move can swing the stock market and instill faith or fear in the American economic outlook. Within Trump’s orbit, the renewed interest in cultivating inroads with him is a sign that many in the business world are coming to terms with the likelihood they could have to navigate the former president once again or are at least hedging their bets, people familiar with the conversations said.
“There are some that seem to be waking up to the fact that like, ‘Holy sh*t, this guy might get elected again. I don’t want to have him, his administration, going after us,’” a person close to Trump told CNN. “What he’s saying out loud, I think they hear, and they’re taking it seriously.”
Trump’s conversation with Jassy, which has not been previously reported, comes as Amazon’s founder and largest shareholder, Jeff Bezos, faces blowback related to another business he owns, The Washington Post. The newspaper recently decided not to endorse a candidate in the presidential race for the first time since the 1980s, leading to a wave of canceled subscriptions and internal blowback.
A person with knowledge of the conversation with Jassy said it was instigated at the request of the company and called the exchange with Trump a “general, hello-type thing.” Amazon did not respond to a request for comment.
Trump also spoke Friday with executives at Bezos’ space exploration company, Blue Origin, after an event in Austin, Texas, The Associated Press reported.
Apple did not respond to an email from CNN asking about the nature of Cook’s call with Trump. A spokesperson for Google said the company had “nothing to share on this.”
Trump has clearly enjoyed his warming with tech titans. He has flaunted his private conversations with them in interviews and appearances. He now heaps praise on companies he once blamed for his 2020 electoral defeat, unleashing years of Republican-led attacks on tech companies.
After Trump’s assassination attempt in July, Zuckerberg called Trump’s immediate reaction to the shooting “badass,” during an interview with “The Circuit” podcast at Meta’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California. Trump had made Meta a regular target of his ire, accusing the company’s social media platform, Facebook, of aiding Democrats in 2020. Meta for a time kicked Trump off the company’s platforms, including Facebook and Instagram.
Now, though, Trump says Zuckerberg is “much better.”
“I actually believe he’s staying out of the election, which is nice,” the former president said in an interview with the Barstool Sports podcast “Bussin’ With The Boys.”
Whoever is sworn in next year will immediately face decisions over whether to continue President Joe Biden’s crackdown on Big Tech. Biden’s Department of Justice has sued Apple under antitrust laws, accusing the company of manipulating smartphone markets and stifling innovation. It has aggressively gone after Google as well, arguing the company is the modern equivalent of the AT&T monopoly that the government disbanded in the 1980s in a historic decision.
At a recent interview before the Economic Club of Chicago, Trump refused to say if he would follow through on Biden’s efforts to break up Google. However, he said he was “not a fan” of the company and “they treat me badly.” He previously said he would request that Google be prosecuted “at the maximum levels,” if he were to win reelection, and claimed without evidence that Google broke the law and only displayed “bad stories” about Trump and “good stories” about Harris.
However, Trump’s tune on Google changed in an interview Thursday.
“If you look at Google lately, I think you’re going to see they’ve become much more inclined towards Trump,” the former president told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. “They’re starting to like Trump, because they’re starting to get it.”
Hours later, Trump shared with a Las Vegas crowd that he had spoken with Google’s top executive
Google and Apple also face mounting legal headwinds overseas, where the European Union has slapped the companies with multibillion-dollar judgments for tax avoidance. Apple’s tax bill is up to $14.4 billion and Google owes $2.6 billion, Europe’s top court ruled last month in a judgment that cannot be repealed.
Trump on Thursday said he discussed the ruling with Cook, with whom he has fostered a relationship dating back to his first term. He suggested the outcome for Apple will change if he wins in November.
“Let me tell you: All of those companies will be set free, if you have the right president,” Trump said. “All of those companies will be in good shape. Don’t worry about that.”
CNN’s Clare Duffy and Kate Sullivan contributed to this report.
Credit: CNN
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