NEW YORK: President-elect Donald Trump, who faced fierce opposition from some Silicon Valley leaders during the election campaign, strove to assure the titans of tech on Wednesday that his administration is “here to help you folks do well.”
Trump, still savoring his election victory, convened a summit at Trump Tower for nearly a dozen tech leaders, whose industry largely supported Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Many in the industry are worried that Trump will stifle innovation, curb the hiring of computer-savvy immigrants and infringe on consumers’ digital privacy.
He immediately tried to allay those fears.
“We want you to keep going with the incredible innovation. Anything we can do to help this go on, we will be there for you,” Trump said. “You’ll call my people, you’ll call me. We have no formal chain of command around here.”
The CEOs who filled the table in Trump’s 25th floor conference room included Apple’s Tim Cook, Alphabet’s Larry Page, Google’s Eric Schmidt, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Tesla’s Elon Musk, IBM’s Ginni Rometty, Oracle’s Safra Catz and Cisco Systems’ Chuck Robbins. Facebook’s chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, attended instead of its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, who is one of many tech executives who have expressed misgivings about Trump’s pledge to deport millions of immigrants who are in the country illegally.
One major tech company not invited, despite Trump’s frequent use of its product, was Twitter.
The meeting remained amiable and the group, which agreed to meet quarterly, also had preliminary discussions about immigration and how to stay competitive with China, though no firm commitments were made, according to a person briefed on the meeting but not authorized to discuss it publicly.
Trump was joined by several members of his senior staff and his three eldest children, who are expected to help run his business once he takes office, again blurring the line between the president-elect’s personal and professional lives.
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.”
Also Wednesday:
• Michigan’s Republican Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel was officially named Trump’s choice to become the new RNC chair next year. The niece of 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney would be the first woman to hold the committee’s top position in 40 years.
• Trump officially announced his selection of former Texas Gov. Rick Perry as his secretary of energy, leading a department Perry once suggested scrapping.
• House Democrats warned that they’ll make Trump’s splashy new Washington hotel a big headache if he doesn’t dump his ownership stake in it before taking office.
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