President-elect Trump is set to meet with some of his foremost critics next week in Trump Tower: leaders of the tech industry.
Silicon Valley, nestled in the heart of the Bay Area, was home to one of the most Trump-resistant sectors of the American economy. A leader of Facebook promised to spend $20 million to stop Trump from taking the White House, Apple and Hewlett-Packard withheld support from the GOP convention during the summer and Mark Cuban, now a major investor in tech companies, railed against Trump at every opportunity.
But, now that Trump is set to take the White House, he’s summoning top executives from multiple companies to his home turf. And there’s an air of secrecy around the meeting.
Reports indicate executives from Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google have all been invited. Venture capitalist Peter Thiel, incoming Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and a newspaper executive who works as a top adviser, will be there to represent the administration.
But as of Friday, Trump transition officials were mum on the guest list for the meeting or what message he’ll want to get across to the leaders.
Similarly, the CEOs who have confirmed to the press that they’re attending the meeting don’t really want to talk about what message they plan on sending.
Oracle CEO Safra Catz is among the software executives who have confirmed they’ll be at the meeting. Catz met with Trump last month following his election and it was rumored she was being considered for a Cabinet position.
An Oracle spokeswoman demurred when asked what message Catz hoped to hear from Trump and what she hoped to tell him.
“Safra will be at the meeting. We do not have any further comment at this point,” she said in an email after declining comment in a phone call.
Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins has also been confirmed for the meeting in New York, but representatives from the computer hardware maker didn’t return requests for comment.
The meeting is the second industry-wide roundtable called by Trump since his election, and it’s possible it could go the same way as the contentious meeting with top broadcast media members last month.
In a meeting at Trump Tower, Trump reportedly berated reporters and media executives over the coverage he received during the campaign and since his election. It’s possible one of his biggest critics, the Washington Post, will end up being at the tech industry meeting as well.
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and owner of the Washington Post, has been the target of Trump criticisms for more than a year on the campaign trail and in interviews. Trump has accused Bezos of using the Washington Post to get more favorable tax deals for Amazon, along with buying influence for his company.
However, Thiel’s presence and the gracious response of some tech leaders to Trump’s election may serve as a calming influence on the meeting.
In an interview with the New York Times, Trump said he’s gotten off on a good foot with moguls such as Bill Gates and Apple’s Tim Cook, both of whom called to congratulate him following the election. Trump said he told Cook that he wants to bring Apple’s manufacturing process to the United States, leading some to speculate Trump will try to ram home his “America First” message to the tech leaders on Wednesday.
“I got a call from Tim Cook at Apple, and I said, ‘Tim, you know one of the things that will be a real achievement for me is when I get Apple to build a big plant in the United States, or many big plants in the United States, where instead of going to China, and going to Vietnam, and going to the places that you go to, you’re making your product right here,'” Trump told the Times.
“He said, ‘I understand that.’ I said: ‘I think we’ll create the incentives for you, and I think you’re going to do it. We’re going for a very large tax cut for corporations, which you’ll be happy about.'”
Thiel’s presence in the room will also be a sign of welcome to the California contingent. Thiel was one of the few Trump backers in Silicon Valley and jumped on the bandwagon early. He spoke at the Republican National Convention about the need to bring Silicon Valley’s prosperity to the rest of the country and his belief Trump could do that.
“My industry has made a lot of progress in computers and in software, and, of course, it’s made a lot of money,” Thiel said at the time. “But Silicon Valley is a small place. Drive out to Sacramento, or even just across the bridge to Oakland, and you won’t see the same prosperity. That’s just how small it is.”
