Tech leaders kiss the ring

If former President Donald Trump is to be believed, some of the richest and most powerful people in the world have called him to lavish him with compliments. Though most leaders of major tech companies haven’t publicly endorsed him — with one glaring exception — Trump claims they’ve privately told him how cool he is, implied they’d be better off under a Trump presidency, or said they aren’t voting for his opponent.

Among Trump’s claims: Google CEO Sundar Pichai congratulated him on his stint as a McDonald’s employee, calling it “one of the biggest things we’ve seen on Google”; Tim Cook called him to complain about fines the European Union levied on Apple; Mark Zuckerberg called him multiple times to “apologize” and said there’s “no way” he can vote for a Democrat after a shooter nearly took Trump’s life in Pennsylvania. 

If true, it would be an interesting pivot for the leaders of companies that Trump has accused of “manipulating” votes in the 2016 election, “rigging” search results against him and other conservatives, and generally being “anti-Trump.” The accusations aren’t one-sided, either: Amazon has claimed that Trump used “improper pressure” to convince the Pentagon not to award the company a multibillion-dollar defense contract. 

Of course, it’s possible that these men aren’t actually lining up to kiss the ring or that Trump — a diva who is prone to exaggeration — has sensationalized more mundane conversations. It’s also possible that, despite their riches, Zuckerberg, Pichai, Cook, and other leaders of major tech companies are in the same boat as the rest of us: they don’t know who will win the presidential election. Poll after poll shows that it’s basically a coin flip. And if one of the two people who could be president is both vindictive and susceptible to flattery — and in charge of appointing people who decide how to spend billions in federal contracts — why not butter him up a little bit?

You can see the calculus at play. Trump has in the past made policy decisions based on his grudges and whims and is all but threatening to do so again if he gets back into the White House. In September, he threatened to prosecute Google if reelected, saying the company had “illegally” only shown “bad stories” about him and “good” ones about Vice President Kamala Harris. He later said he called Pichai to complain about bias against him in Google Search. If there’s a chance Trump is going to be the next president, some flattery might avert a lot of damage.

Here’s what we do know: Zuckerberg said Trump’s reaction to being shot at was “badass.” Jeff Bezos reportedly killed The Washington Post’s endorsement of Harris, and executives of Bezos’ Blue Origin met with Trump the same day the Post published its non-endorsement. 

The people involved have denied any allegations of bias or impropriety. In an emailed statement to The Verge, Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said the “brief greeting was spontaneous and arranged last-minute on Friday morning. No one could have possibly known about it in advance, including Jeff. It’s ridiculous that anyone would imply otherwise or refer to any quid pro quo. It’s simply not true.” Bezos wrote a justification of the Post’s non-endorsement, claiming “neither campaign nor candidate was consulted or informed at any level or in any way” about the decision. Meta spokesperson Dani Lever declined to comment directly and instead pointed The Verge to a comment made to New York Magazine in September: “As Mark has said publicly, he’s not endorsing anybody in this race and has not communicated to anybody how he intends to vote.” (Apple, the Post, and Google did not respond to requests for comment.)

This isn’t entirely new. Bezos and Zuckerberg didn’t personally endorse presidential candidates in 2020. But the Post did endorse Trump’s opponents in both 2020 and 2016.

Whatever their motivations, tech leaders appear to be hedging their bets. It’s unclear whether they’re afraid of potential retribution from Trump, hoping to be rewarded with government contracts, or wary of being subject to additional oversight and regulation if Harris wins. But there’s no indication they’ll be safe with Trump in the White House. 

Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership, drafted by Trump allies and former staffers, lays out a roadmap for punishing conservatives’ tech adversaries. (The chapter on the Federal Trade Commission recommends emulating Europe’s “less friendly regulatory environment.”) Trump, too, has said he’d “do something” about Google, and his running mate JD Vance has outright called for a breakup of the company. Meanwhile, the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) — a right-wing think tank that has gotten far less attention than the Heritage Foundation, the organization behind Project 2025 — is advising the Trump campaign and has reportedly drafted nearly 300 executive orders that can be signed the second he takes office. Among the AFPI’s plans is the creation of a new “Manhattan Project” for defense, which the Post reports would benefit tech companies that already have government contracts, including Palantir.

Unlike Elon Musk — who has endorsed Trump, appeared at several campaign rallies, and reportedly put hundreds of millions of dollars toward Trump’s reelection effort — Bezos and other tech leaders haven’t gone full MAGA. Still, their strategic silence suggests they’re preparing for the possibility of a Trump presidency — and for the favors and punishments he’ll dole out if reelected.