The Tech Bros Love Trump Because the Democrats Pushed Them Away
What Elizabeth Warren has achieved.
Four days before Donald Trump's second presidential inauguration, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman shared on X a threatening letter he had received from Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D–Mass.) and Michael Bennett (D–Col.). In the letter, the senators expressed dismay that the tech entrepreneur had donated $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund.
"We are concerned that your company and other Big Tech donors are using your massive contributions to the inaugural fund to cozy up to the incoming Trump administration in an effort to avoid scrutiny, limit regulation, and buy favor," they wrote. "These donations raise questions about corruption and the influence of corporate money on the Trump administration, and Congress and the public demand answers."
In response, Altman noted that the donation was actually a personal contribution, not one made by his company. He also could not resist pointing out the hypocrisy.
"Funny, they never sent me one of these [letters] for contributing to democrats…" he wrote.
Altman may very well be correct about that, although supporting the Democratic Party—financially, rhetorically, or otherwise—has given tech leaders very little actual protection from Democratic lawmakers. Just ask Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who were repeatedly dragged before Congress and accused of conspiring to overturn democracy, abuse children, and commit other sins. By criticizing Trump's views on immigration and otherwise touting liberal causes, Zuckerberg may have thought he had successfully ingratiated himself with the Biden administration; yet in July 2021, President Joe Biden accused Facebook of "killing people" because Zuckerberg had not unilaterally put the government in charge of content moderation.
And that, in a nutshell, is why so many of the wealthiest and most influential innovators in the tech sector are abandoning the Democratic Party en masse.
Some, such as venture capitalist Mark Andreessen, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, have been full MAGA for a while; others, such as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, are now officially seeking political neutrality while dipping their toes in rightist waters. But there's one thing they all have in common: a dawning realization that the political project of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party is to bring technological innovation to a grinding halt.
Yes, many Republicans—too many—have also railed against tech in recent years, betraying their previous support for free market principles in order to exact revenge on social media platforms that limited conservative speech. But the plain truth is that the GOP's desire to break up large, profitable, and successful tech companies is largely about score-settling: Political figures such as Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz (R–Tex.) were against Big Tech because Big Tech was against them.
This does not make the Republican attacks on tech defensible. Indeed, they directed their fire in the wrong direction, as the main reason that social media deplatformed conservative speech was federal pressure. But the progressive war on Big Tech is very different.
Warren, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I–Vt.), and their allies are not narrowly anti-tech because tech is mean to them. Their ideologies are opposed to the kind of economic power that accrues to successful technological ventures. Moreover, social media companies have learned that no amount of capitulation to government dictates will ever be enough for the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention. There will always be another hit piece in a mainstream media outlet about the failures of Facebook, X, Snapchat, Google, TikTok, or someone else to counter foreign disinformation, right-wing propaganda, hate speech, etc. There will always be another congressional inquiry and a proposal to remove Section 230, the liability shield for internet companies. There will always be the threat of antitrust legislation aimed at the sheer bigness of these companies, even though polls consistently show the American public broadly like and appreciate the services the tech companies render.
For the past several years, Democrats have attracted some conservative support for their anti-tech agenda; the populist faction of Trump's Republican Party has noisily embraced antitrust and the elimination of Section 230. But Trump no longer seems particularly committed to their agenda: He has empowered Musk, is working with TikTok to thwart Biden's bipartisan ban on the platform, and has even made peace with Zuckerberg. Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg, and TikTok CEO Show Zi Chew are all attending Trump's inauguration.
The end result may well be a GOP that is more comfortable with tech markets. That would be good for economic growth and unfettered innovation. Perhaps libertarians should send a cheeky thank-you letter to Elizabeth Warren.
