Uber and its CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, donated a combined $2 million to Donald Trump’s inauguration, following a line of tech companies and their wealthy owners bending the knee.
Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Apple’s Tim Cook, Google’s Sundar Pichai, and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos are all scheduled to visit or have recently visited Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Even TikTok CEO Shou Chew rushed to Trump’s Florida estate ahead of a ruling that would possibly ban the popular social media app.
Bezos, Zuckerberg, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are also preparing to donate $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund or have already done so.
"President Trump will lead our country into the age of AI, and I am eager to support his efforts to ensure America stays ahead," Altman said in a statement to CBS News.
This display of ring-kissing might shock those who recall Trump waging war against Zuckerberg and Bezos in his first term.
In 2020, Trump allegedly stepped in the way of a $10 billion contract between Bezos’ Amazon and the Pentagon, handing the large-dollar deal to Microsoft instead. At the time, Amazon said the decision was Trump’s way of enacting revenge on the negative reporting coming out of the Bezos-owned Washington Post. A year later, with Biden in office, the Pentagon reversed its decision and included Amazon in the contract.
Trump also made plenty of attacks against Zuckerberg (including threats to throw him in prison). However, Zuckerberg seemed to put all of that behind him when dined at Mar-a-Lago late last month.
One Washington lobbyist explained why there has been such a change in tone, saying these tech giants don’t have much of a choice this time around.
“It takes a lot for an uber-wealthy, creative-type CEO, many of whom lean left, to suck it up and deal with Trump,” the lobbyist told Financial Times. “But what choice do they have?”
Some of these tech owners may be kissing up to Trump this time around in the hopes he will be more lax than Joe Biden’s regulation efforts against big biz. Plus, as many have claimed, Trump loves flattery.
On the other hand, Bezos might be sucking up to Trump for other reasons. Earlier this week, a Senate probe found Amazon has been manipulating its data to hide the amount of worker injuries. With Trump in his good graces, Bezos’ chances of maneuvering tricky lawsuits and regulations might be easier.
To make his stance on worker’s rights more apparent, Bezos has also teamed up with Trump’s billionaire “first buddy” Elon Musk to attack the National Labor Relations Board, which has historically fought for workers’ rights.
The NLRB has found fault with both Amazon and SpaceX. Surely, that might have something to do with two of the richest men going after the program.
