Big Tech’s Big Bet on Trump

from New York Times I'm Michael babbaro. this is the. [Music]. daily big Tech's biggest names are. throwing their weight behind Donald. Trump in the biggest possible way first. as candidate and now as. president-elect today what one Tech. Billionaire's Journey from Top tier.

Democratic donor to Trump adviser. reveals about the growing. modification of Silicon. [Music]. [Applause]. Valley it's Monday January. [Music]. 13th Aaron welcome back thanks for. having me you have been covering.

startups and Silicon Valley for a long. time and you know as well as anyone that. by reputation Silicon Valley is seen as. a liberal Bastion a place where. Progressive thinking is nursed and. promoted but over the past year. especially during the presidential. campaign it really did feel like Silicon. Valley's conservative self began to. emerge.

absolutely and it's true that Silicon. Valley has historically been very. liberal and there were plenty of very. well-known investors and Founders who. backed President Biden's campaign and. then vice president Harris but the thing. that was different this time around was. that some of the most prominent and. influential people in the tech industry. came out in support of Donald. Trump and this includes bigname Venture. capitalists like David saxs this. includes Elon Musk and this includes a.

lot of other people that are very famous. in the tech industry but maybe not. household names across the country and. that has a little bit of a trickle down. effect where in the past it may have. been taboo or absolutely impossible to. say that you supported Trump or even. that you were a republican now it's kind. of a lot more common you encounter it a. lot more frequently and that's a huge. change and so once Trump won the.

election we've seen the industry go even. further than merely expressing support. for him they're making changes to their. policies and their personnel over the. past week meta which is Facebook's. parent company said it is pulling back. on factchecking and policing. disinformation on its platforms. company's also changing its board of. directors right they added Dana White. who is the CEO of the USC and a big Ally. of Trump's to its board so these whole. episode about him yeah yeah so these are.

all moves that align with the incoming. president and his base of support and. Mark Zuckerberg even came out and said. directly that he was doing this in. response to what he saw as a cultural. Tipping Point that the election. represented right roughly translated. he's saying we are doing this because of. Trump's Victory more or less and the. question that that raises right away is. is this opportunism is this big Tech and.

Silicon Valley doing what a lot of. profitable Industries do when there's a. new president which is seek friendly. relationships with the new boss or is. this something deeper is this the case. of big Tech's true political identity. emerging from behind what may have been. a cloak of liberalism it's kind of both. in a way it's partly a result of big. Tech becoming such a big and powerful. industry they're maturing they're.

growing up they are just like any other. industry that needs to get in good with. regulators and push back against. regulation that they think will hinder. their growth but at the same time I. think it's also kind of a cultural sea. change for the tech industry and it's. being pushed forward by some of these. really loud and influential voices that. have just been kind of fed up with the. direction that our broader culture but. also specifically Tech culture has been. moving you know for the last 15 years.

and the tech leader who maybe embodies. this transformation the most is a. venture capital investor named Mark. andreon well tell us about Mark andreon. and his shift yeah so he's really a. Titan of Silicon Valley he is the. founder of a venture capital firm called. andrees and Horowitz that manages $44. billion he has invested in some of the. most prominent and. successful startups to come out of. silicon valy you know Pinterest slack.

Airbnb coinbase he's on the board of. Facebook but more than that he's kind of. just like a VC thought leader who states. his opinions very passionately and the. industry really follows and is. influenced by what he says he's also. called himself a quote unquote Normy. Democrat for most of his life he. supported all the way going back to Bill. Clinton he supported Gore krie Obama. Hillary Clint.

MH and so it was you know a little bit. of a surprise when in 2024 he came out. in support of trump pretty loudly. donated money to the campaign and now. that Trump's about to take office he's. been kind of a key adviser in the. transition he's been spending a lot of. time at maralago he's been recommending. people from the tech industry to work. for the new Administration so how does. andreon go from reliable Normy Democrat. to support and now adviser to Donald.

Trump for andrees it starts with this. concept that he calls the deal Mark. Andre welcome to honestly it's great to. be here I'm really happy to have you and. he's talked about this on a number of. podcasts including Barry weisses and Joe. Rogan and what's the. deal um the deal was somebody like me. basically could start a company uh you. could invent a new technology in this. case you know web browsers and all the. other things that Netscape did um. everybody would think that that was. great the deal is that you could be a.

successful business person and you get. celebrated for your Innovations or your. business success you get celebrated for. making lots of money and then at the end. you give it all away and you are further. celebrated for that that washes away all. of your all of your sins you know the. idea sort of is you will thank us you. get invited to all the great parties you. get invited to Davos you get invited to. Aspen you get to come in and you know.

sit with the New York Times editorial. board um and you will mostly leave us. alone and let us innovate and that's the. arc and it's all great. wonderful this is kind of the philosophy. that his whole career has operated by he. found success at a really young age he. was the co-founder of this iconic early. internet company called Netscape he made. a lot of money and went on to be a very.

successful Venture Capital investor. after that he was thinking like this is. great I'm doing great things for the. world and the world is going to thank me. for it m his political views kind of. reflected that as well he was a big fan. of Obama he even wrote an oped about his. choice to support him and part of it was. that he personally liked Obama he called. him smart normal curious not radical. post Boomer he was a fan but you know in.

his view the deal kind of started to. break down toward the end of the Obama. years there's no doubt the sharing. economy is disrupting traditional. businesses but a little context that's. kind of helpful for understanding this. you know in the middle of the. 2010s tech as an industry was going from. this kind of quirky Niche thing that was. happening to an extremely powerful and. bigger than ever part of our lives and. our economy well it's just hard to. compete with the ease of online shopping. I don't even have to leave my C cule to.

find great deals all over the Internet. it is a much different experience than. actually going to a store Amazon is. disrupting retail let's look at Airbnb. for one startups are disrupting taxis. and hotels taxi drivers angry and. frustrated that Uber and lift drivers. are taking their business while escaping. the expensive regulations taxis face. there are these major changes happening. and the tech industry is kind of. ascendent but when that happens you know. it brings a lot of critic too more and.

more these large companies and their. power is a threat to democracy and the. tech industry was not used to being. criticized about privacy about Labor. practices they really didn't like it and. so one moment that really encapsulates. that for him is something that happened. in 2015 with Mark Zuckerberg and his. wife Priscilla Chan when they announced. that they were going to donate most of. their net worth to charity right and so. they did this thing where they announced. committed that 99% of their ownership in.

Facebook um was going to go to. philanthropic causes and in fact this is. you know following the classic deal. trajectory right and they just got. hammered with criticism and attacks on. that and but instead of getting the. praise and adoration that they expected. they actually got a lot of criticism for. the structure that they chose to give. the money away in the way that they were. doing it people were kind of picking it. apart and the line of argument was. literally oh they're just slimy rich. people and they're only doing it for the. tax. break which is like a basic mathematical.

problem which is you don't give away 99%. of your money for a tax break to Andre. in his telling this really kind of. encapsulated for him the beginning of. his shift and perspective on basically. [Music]. everything basically what I experienced. was they the people in charge of all. this basically broke the deal so. basically every single thing I just said. is you know for the last decade has been.

now held to be presumptively. evil tech people are held to be this. evil class anybody who's rich is evil. philanthropy was being redefined as evil. it's like okay every single part of that. deal no longer works and so it just you. know for me it then raised the question. of like okay if none of that is true. then what world am I living in what role. do I. play so in his mind the deal had been. honored for much of the history of. Silicon Valley and much of his own very.

successful career until suddenly people. start to as you said pick apart question. challenge everything about the people. who are at the center of the deal these. entrepreneurs these Founders people like. Mark Zuckerberg and suddenly they can. only do wrong exactly he has kind of. described this as a little bit of a. journey of him asking himself like. what's happening here and that was.

really compounded by the election of. Donald Trump in 2016 he talked about how. it really took him by surprise and he. realized he didn't understand what was. happening in the country and he needed. to go on his own kind of political. Awakening and figure out what was. driving this and what does that. Awakening look like and what does he. find well you know after the 2016. election the tech companies came under a. lot of scrutiny from both both sides and. so kind of while he's doing this inquiry.

he's trying to kind of learn about. what's actually going on in America we. have these allegations made by us. intelligence that Russia had basically. hijacked platforms like Facebook and. used them to medal in the US election so. andrees you know has a front row seat to. this he's on Facebook's board I went to. Hillary's first um postelection LW. speech which she gave at Stanford and. the Russia gate stuff is in full. full-blown full-blown display and. Hillary gets up there and she says Trump.

is only president today because Vladimir. Putin hacked Facebook and and made him. the President right and I'm sitting in. the audience and I'm like on the. Facebook board and I'm like that's not. like that's not true I know for an. absolute fact that that's not true right. and he felt like it didn't add up and. that people were just scapegoating the. tech companies right and so that got me. thinking and then the rushia gate stuff. unspooled and I was like it was just. this Litany of you know basically. excuses and complaints right with no. sense of like responsib personal. responsibility at all ultimately you.

know us intelligence agencies concluded. that Russia did interfere by using. social media platforms and Facebook set. up an oversight board to start. monitoring this stuff and you know. they're trying to run a business they're. trying to get to the next quarter. they're trying to keep the employee base. and everybody go pathetic they're trying. not to get just completely destroyed by. the politicians andreon is still a. little bit concerned about the direction. that things are going he views it as a. slippery slope that you know tracking. things like hate speech moderating.

things is a road to censorship and so he. kind of concludes that the oversight's. going a little bit too far and then Joe. Biden gets elected which in his mind. accelerates all the problems that he saw. already unfolding in the tech industry. how so well especially during the. pandemic the Biden Administration put a. lot of pressure on Facebook to suppress. things like the lab leak theory of how. Co started at one point Biden accused. the social media platforms of killing.

people by allowing disinformation on the. vaccines to flourish right and I. remember Facebook in particular took. that very personally and they were upset. about it yeah and just to add a little. bit of context Democrats have. historically had a very tight. relationship with the tech industry and. Joe Biden did not and you know among the. first things that Biden does is he. appoints two people that the tech. industry really does not like to key. regulatory roles that's Lena Khan as a.

head of FTC Gary gendler at the SEC and. you know they're going after big tech. for antitrust that hurts mergers and. Acquisitions and the ability of some of. Andre's portfolio companies to get. bought Gary gendler is going after the. crypto industry and that hurts a lot of. the companies that andreon Horwitz has. invested in they're one of the biggest. crypto investors and so the Biden. Administration really takes this kind of. antagonistic view toward Tech and a lot.

of people in the tech industry bristled. at that so at first he's watching with. some alarm as tech companies primarily. from the left are being pushed toward a. form of what he regards as censorship. and then he's watching as a new. Administration comes in that based on. its appointments seems outright hostile. to Big Tech's business. interests absolutely and this all sort. of culminates in this meeting that.

happened last May andreon and a lot of. other tech people met with Biden's. people to talk about Ai and he basically. comes away with the view that the. Democrats are not just trying to control. speech but they're trying to control. Silicon Valley they're trying to control. technology we had meetings in DC in May. uh where we we talked to them about this. and the meetings were absolutely. horrifying and we came out according to. andrees Biden's people basically came in.

and took a very antagonistic view of AI. and how to regulate it they said they. said look AI is a technology basically. that the government is going to. completely control um this is not going. to be a startup thing they basically. said AI is going to be a a game of two. or three big companies um working. closely with the government they. essentially said AI is going to be. controlled by the government don't fund. AI startups this is his characterization. other people who were there including. Sam mman the CEO of open AI disputes.

that characterization says maybe it's a. little exaggerated and then I said I. don't understand how you're going to. lock this down so much because like the. math for you know AI is like out there. and it's being taught everywhere and you. know they the overall takeaway from. Andre was that this is going to be a. hostile fight between government. Regulators who want to clamp down on the. technology that he and the companies. that he invests in want to build you. have this like incredible radicalized. you know set of policies with this young.

staff that just is like Out For Blood um. on all these different. fronts and so this is. when he basically concludes that Biden. is. anti-tech he views the administration. and by extension Democrats as radical on. Tech Innovation and Tech progress which. is kind of his life's work so all of.

this together really primes him to be. courted by the other. side when you leave a meeting like that. what do you. [Music]. do you go endur Donald. [Music]. Trump we'll be right back. [Music].

Aaron talk about this courtship from the. other side because so far what you're. describing from Mark andreen is really a. deepening frustration with the left with. the Biden Administration rather than any. kind of deep kinship with Donald Trump. yeah and you know on July 5th he posted. this Manifesto which is something that. he does from time to time he's got some. really famous ones including software is.

eating the world and it's time to build. he posts one that is called the little. Tech agenda he basically concludes that. you know big tech companies have. lobbyists that are kind of looking out. for them but no one's sticking up for. what he calls little Tech and that. includes all the startups and the. Venture firms that he's working with and. he basically says Andre and Horowitz The. Venture Capital firm is going to support. any candidate that supports the little. Tech agenda and so that's kind of like.

opening the door for like hey you know. any presidential candidate any. Congressional candidate that wants to. you know kind of win our vote and our. support like tell us what you got and. they tried to meet with both Biden and. Trump they never ended up meeting with. Biden but Trump invited them to. dinner so we met with him at his. bedminister golf club in uh in New. Jersey which is like breathtaking. absolutely beautiful Mark andreon and. his partner Ben Horwitz end up at.

Trump's Golf Club in New Jersey. Bedminster yeah I mean he's just he's an. incredible host you know he he he runs. his own private worlds and they're super. impressed by Trump he said what do you. guys want to eat and I I just I for some. reason I was just like I know exactly. what to say and I'm like meat I want. meat and it was glorious andreon talks. about how Trump only ordered meat and. how he whed and D them it's also one of. really interesting to kind of watch him. at work which is he treats everybody the. same any talks to everybody he will.

happily talk to distinguished visitors. about like you know who the Vice. President should be and then he'll ask. the caddy they talk about how Trump. talks to everyone you know he's really. kind of in the mix his thing with us. basically was like look I just want. America to win he's telling them kind of. exactly what they want to hear you know. you guys are in Tech I don't know much. about tech but I don't need to cuz you. guys know a lot about it you guys should. go build tech companies the American. tech companies should win he wants. America to win and he wants Tech to win. we should beat China we should export we. should make the products the world wants.

our economy should be growing a lot. faster we should be creating a lot more. jobs you know everybody in America who. wants a good job should have one and. that will be the result of you know. American companies succeeding he wants. to do what he can to help tech companies. Thrive and he wants government to get. out of the way and he wants American. innovation to be exported all around the. world and so you know and most of the. discussion was just around that and so. they were really taken with Trump and. his message to them right it sounds like.

what he's telling Andre and it sounds. like andr wants to hear it is that Trump. is prepared to restore the deal as. andreon would call it you do your thing. I'm here to cheer you on and celebrate. and help. exactly so what ends up happening after. this dinner at. Bedminster shortly after that Andre and. Horowitz post a podcast and announcing. that they are endorsing Trump for.

president they went into a lot of the. stuff that we've been talking about you. know the pressure to moderate content. online the regulation the fact that. Trump is eager to see the tech industry. innovate and build and do all the things. they want to do and there was one other. reason I think it was hard for any man. to see somebody get shot in the head. bleeding not knowing how badly he's been. injured they really talked about how. impressed they were by the fact that he. you know raised his fist after the.

assassination attempt and put your fist. up in the air and say fight fight fight. like how cool they thought that was we. don't see physical bravery like that. like all of these things combined result. in their endorsement and that's really. the start of when a lot of people who. were maybe privately supporting Trump in. Silicon Valley really started to come. out of the woodwork and say so publicly. so Andre creates something of a. permission structure for others in the. valley to say I too support Trump.

absolutely Andre and Elon Musk and a few. other leaders combined I mean elon's. endorsement was obviously really. influential but within the tech industry. specifically venture capital and. startups you know Mark. Andre his opinion really carries a lot. of weight and I think that did open the. door for a lot of people to come out as. Trump supporters as well mhm in thinking. about the story that you have told here. and the journey that Mark andry has gone. on it it's pretty clear that there are. two major elements here one is that in.

his mind the Democratic party failed him. and failed Tech both culturally and. financially and the second component is. that Trump in his mind meets the tech. industry where it is both culturally and. financially and in that sense it's just. not all that complicated but what stands. out to me at least is that this ends up. being the story of the democratic party. seeming to Forfeit. what had been a very long and seemingly.

fruitful. relationship with these innovators and. leaders of tech and when we think about. the result of the 2024 election I think. quite naturally you know we think about. the fact that the vote went to Trump and. that once again he made all these gains. in various constituencies I hadn't. really thought of it as an election in. which he had also made gains in the. constituency of Silicon Valley but that. is clearly one of the places that he.

made very unexpected. inroads yeah I think you're right and. there is a little bit of I think maybe. soul searching in Silicon Valley now. thinking about like which party some. people belong to I mean the frustration. with the Biden Administration wasn't. just limited to people who were Trump. curious or who have supported Trump I. mean a lot of people were frustrated. with the Anti-Trust policies or with. some of the crypto stuff that was.

happening so yeah there is a little bit. of an opportunity I think for a reset in. Silicon Valley and we're seeing that. happen just as some of the loudest and. most influential voices in Tech who. support Trump are really on this Victory. lap well now that we understand the. depth of Silicon Valley support for. Trump and now that Trump is about to. take office how much sway do we think. people like Mark Andre because they were. out early and publicly for Trump will. have over him as president because so.

far it feels like it's the tech industry. in some of its policy announcements and. its donations to Trump's inauguration. that have been making the concessions to. Trump rather than Trump necessarily. making any concessions to Silicon. Valley I mean the tech industry right. now is jockeying for a lot of influence. in the future Trump. Administration with andrees specifically. two andrees and Horwitz Partners have. already been appointed to to join the. administration and lots of tech workers.

are trying to get involved in Doge which. is the Department of government. efficiency it goal is to reduce. government spending um you see a new. post on social media every day of some. prominent Tech person heading over to. Mar Lago to meet and try and get on one. of these advisory boards or involved in. the transition team there is a lot of. crossover it kind of reminds me of the. Obama Administration a little bit when. you had all these people from Apple. Airbnb Facebook kind of a rot door in. and out of that Administration that's.

now happening in the Trump transition. it's yeah it's been fascinating to see. it's you know different people obviously. from different sides of the aisle but. yeah there's a lot of enthusiasm among. certain groups in the tech industry to. seize this opportunity and you know. potentially get to influence what they. see as a whole new regulatory regime you. know it strikes me Aaron that Andre's. animating premise here and really the.

heart of his political evolution is his. belief that this deal he articulated. makes sense still makes sense but the. reality I think for many is that the. deal he wants to bring back the one he. felt Biden walked away from the one he. thinks Trump will honor was from a. different era right when Tech was small. it was the underdog You could argue it. needed a Long Leash to grow and Thrive. but that's not the story of tech now it. is huge and hugely powerful it affects.

all of us in many cases for good in many. for bad take kids social media or the. anti-competitive behavior of tech Giants. that's laid out in federal antitrust. lawsuits or take the risks of artificial. intelligence or crypto we watch the. biggest crypto exchange explode and. billions of dollars just disappear and. therefore many would argue Tech does. require some kind of meaningful. government oversight and so what he's. asking for seems to be a world where the.

government's approach to Tech the deal. no longer really matches what tech is. today and yet what he seems to want from. Trump and people like andrion seem to. want from this Administration is a world. where the terms of this deal don't. change even though the industry quite. obviously has yeah exactly the tech. industry has amassed so much power and. influence over the last 10 20 years and.

they love that power but you know. there's a lot of accountability. responsibility that comes along with. that and there's been some trust lost. along the way MH so none of this. regulatory stuff none of this criticism. has come out of nowhere there are plenty. of people that believe that big tech. power stifling Innovation that's why we. need antitrust enforcement there's. strong case to be made that a lot of. these emerging Technologies like Ai and. crypto can cause real harms and that's. why they need to be regulated but right.

now that is not the vibe that is. coursing around Silicon Valley the vibe. is that this is a time to put our foot. on the gas one thing that Andre said. that really struck me he had a quote. that it felt like a boot off the throat. for the tech industry the day that Trump. was elected so that's Vivid yeah and so. that sentiment while a little dramatic. is is kind of Shar amongst the Trump. supporting techies you know just to be.

clear like nothing has happened yet and. Trump is unpredictable so who knows how. this is actually going to shake out but. that's the sentiment in this world that. for years they supported Democrats and. what they got in return was criticism. and attacks that's the view they were. vilified and regulated yes exactly and. now they feel like they're going to get. what they want which is a lack of. Regulation a lack of criticism and in. their minds free reign to innovate at.

[Music]. will well Aaron thank you very much we. appreciate it thanks for having. me on Friday silic Valley's alienation. from Biden and growing fondness for. Trump continued to be on Vivid display. at a news conference Biden denounced the. decision by meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to. end the the company's system of. factchecking calling it quote really.

shameful meanwhile Zuckerberg traveled. to maral Lago for his second in-person. meeting with Trump since the. election we'll be right. back here's what else you need to. another day over the weekend the death. toll from the wildfires across Greater. Los Angeles reached 24 people with many.

more still missing as winds briefly. calmed firefighters made some progress. in fighting two of the biggest fires as. of Sunday night they have contained 11%. of the Palisades fire and. 27% of the eaten fire but forecasters. expect another round of strong wins to. return today and tomorrow which may only. intensify and spread the fires and force.

the planes that are fighting them from. the sky to be. grounded and Jack Smith the special. counsel who brought two Federal. prosecutions against president-elect. Trump has resigned Smith was forced to. drop both of his cases One charging. Trump with mishandling classified. documents the other of plotting to. overturn the 2020 election under a. justice department policy that bars the.

pursuit of prosecutions against a. sitting. president today's episode was produced. by Jessica Chong muj s and Nina Feldman. with help from Eric krupky and Mary. Wilson it was edited by Lisa Chow. Patricia willins and Mark George and. fact check by Susan Lee it contains. original music by Maran Lozano and Dan. poell. and was engineered by Alyssa Moxley our.

theme music is by Jim brunberg and V. lansberg of. [Music]. [Music]. wonderly that's it for the daily I'm. Michael. babbaro see you tomorrow. [Music].