The Donald Trump administration has been noticeably close to the tech industry in his second term. There are a couple of factors behind that, but in his latest State Dinner — which featured titans of the industry — a hot mic caught the president and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg discussing a $600 billion investment pledge he made on the fly. That moment raised questions about whether these are trustworthy people in general.
This was the second time Trump invited tech leaders to the White House since his inauguration in January. In attendance were Apple CEO Tim Cook, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and Sam Altman from OpenAI. Elon Musk was noticeably missing from the line up. Each tech billionaire had different motives for being there. Cook wanted to ensure his company was shielded from Trump’s wildly inconsistent tariff rates. Gates, after the decimation of USAID, was there to secure a deal that could keep his various philanthropy projects afloat.
