What to Make of Tech Leaders Rallying Behind Trump

Big Tech leaders Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai, and TikTok’s CEO Shou Chew attended President Trump's inauguration on Monday.

The Details: Musk spent an estimated $250 million trying to get Trump elected. Meta, Apple CEO Cook, OpenAI CEO Altman, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Uber donated $1 million each to Trump's inauguration fund. 

From the Left: The Verge (Lean Left bias) and Yahoo News (Lean Left) pieces focused on what tech leaders stand to gain from a relationship with Trump. Musk is now in an advisory position to the president, OpenAI joined the Trump-backed AI infrastructure project Stargate, and TikTok remained online in the U.S., following a federal ban. Cook and Zuckerberg have also criticized the European Union's data privacy and competition laws, and Trump publically agreed with them that the E.U. should not fine U.S. tech companies. The Verge said the tech CEO's were "kissing the ring."

From the Right: Fox News (Right) covered investor Joe Lonsdale's remarks that he doesn't trust tech leaders as far as he can “throw them” and people should wait and see if the leaders are willing to fight courageously against bad ideas. He continued that it would be interesting to see if the leaders continue to embrace Trump in his second term. 

Common Ground: Those on the left and right are skeptical that Big Tech's pivot is a genuine change of heart.