On September 4, Trump hosted a White House dinner in which the top executives of powerful technology firms such as Meta were invited.
Similar to Trump’s unconventional cabinet meetings, in which members of the cabinet take turns praising Trump, the dinner consisted of the tech elite appeasing Trump, hoping for concessions in return. Former Microsoft executive Bill Gates praised Trump for the reintroduction of manufacturing to the United States (in reality, the country is bleeding manufacturing jobs under Trump). He was joined by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who complimented Trump on the more general basis that he was pro-business and pro-innovation.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg humiliated himself and Trump during the dinner. When the latter asked Zuckerberg how much he would invest in the United States, Zuckerberg gave an answer, only to reveal in a “hot mic” moment that his answer was less about corporate policy and more about stroking Trump’s ego.
“How much are you spending, would you say, over the next few years?” Trump asked.
“Oh gosh,” Zuckerberg said. “Um, I mean I think it’s probably going to be something, like, I don’t know, at least $600 billion through ’28 in the US. Yeah.”
Moments later, when the formalities ended and Zuckerberg probably thought he was no longer being recorded, the centibillionaire was all apologies.
“I’m sorry, I wasn’t ready to do our… I wasn’t sure what number you wanted to go with!”
Futurism
Many of the attendees were present for Trump’s second inauguration. A conspicuous absence was former ally Elon Musk. While the feud between Trump and Musk has become somewhat dormant, there has not been a reconciliation as of the time of this writing.
Author’s note
This dinner made me reflect on the purpose of this administration. And out of that reflection, I have two genuine questions for all Trump supporters making less than a million dollars annually: why were you not invited to that dinner table? Is not Trump the President of the working class? And if Trump pledged to put “America first,” why did he invite Zuckerberg, who was willing to undermine national security and hand over American data to the Chinese Communist Party?
