Tech Industry Politics: Same Bullshit, Different Election Cycle

The Predictable Tech CEO Flip-Flop Cycle

Tech CEOs have no actual political principles

• just business interests.

They'll cozy up to any administration that promises to leave their monopolies alone.

Here's the pattern every election cycle:

1. Opposition phase: "We're concerned about [candidate's] policies for innovation"

2. Election happens:

Candidate wins

3. Pivot phase: "We look forward to working with the new administration"

4. Kissing ass phase: "The President's policies are great for American tech leadership"

The Real Motivation:

Avoiding Antitrust Hell

Big Tech Market Dominance Analysis

Big Tech CEOs don't give a shit about politics. They care about avoiding getting broken up by the DOJ. Every photo op and policy endorsement is about one thing: "Please don't regulate us into the ground."

Apple wants to avoid import tariffs on Chinese manufacturing. Meta wants to keep Section 230 protections intact. Google wants to avoid more antitrust lawsuits. Amazon wants to keep their logistics monopoly.

Politicians change, but corporate ass-kissing remains constant.

The most interesting person at the dinner wasn't even there. Elon Musk's absence speaks volumes about the current state of Trump's tech relationships. Musk was "invited but couldn't attend," sending a representative instead. Translation: the bromance is over.

Musk supported Trump in 2024, spent $44 billion on Twitter partly to help Trump's return, and got frozen out anyway. Trump's team sees Musk as too unpredictable, too attention-seeking, and frankly, too competitive with Trump's own ego. You can't have two main characters in the same room.

The fallout came after Musk criticized Trump's AI policies and pushed for his own government efficiency commission. Trump doesn't want advisors - he wants cheerleaders. Musk's Texas-sized ego couldn't handle playing second fiddle, so now he's persona non grata at White House tech dinners.

This creates an interesting dynamic for the other CEOs. They watched Trump exile the world's richest man for showing insufficient deference. That's a lesson in power that Zuckerberg, Cook, and Altman absorbed perfectly.

The dinner also highlighted Trump's AI strategy: make Big Tech compete for government favor while positioning America against China. He threatened new sanctions against countries regulating US tech companies (looking at you, EU) while demanding domestic AI investment commitments.

Each CEO promised billions in US infrastructure spending. It's the classic Trump playbook - extract economic concessions through a combination of carrots (government contracts) and sticks (regulatory threats). The tech leaders played along because the alternative is regulatory warfare.

But here's what's really happening: Trump is consolidating control over the tech industry that increasingly controls information flow, economic infrastructure, and public opinion. This isn't just about AI development - it's about power.