What does President-Elect Donald Trump want from the tech community and what does that community want from him? We’re about to get some answers to those two very pressing questions.
On December 14, somewhere inside New York City's gold-laden Trump Tower, Trump adviser, venture capitalist and Gawkervanquisher Peter Thiel will meet with a half-dozen or more tech industry leaders. Trump’s transition team isn’t talking about who will be in the meeting, though most reports put top executives from Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon and Oracle on the guest list. Twitter and Microsoft might be there, too. It is easily one of the most important sit-downs of the whole transition process.
SEE ALSO:7 very serious suggestions for Donald Trump's 'First Pet'For now, it's not clear if Trump himself will even attend — but a brief appearance by him in this room would be yuge. Either way, you have to assume Thiel has a number of key messages to deliver; thoughts on tech and innovation that will come straight from the future President’s mouth. Trump might just sit silently by Thiel's side and slide over little scrawled notes intended for each lucky tech company.
Trump’s concerns, though, probably won’t line up with those of Google, Facebook, Amazon and other tech companies. During the election, most of them stood very publicly on the opposite side of the political fence and, like many in the media, were probably caught flat-footed by Trump’s Electoral College-driven win.
Now, though, they’ve had weeks to digest the news that Donald Trump is the next President of the United States and time to ask a lot of questions. Trump’s digital policy is, after all, essentially a mystery. The President Elect has little to say about tech and innovation during the campaign and seems mostly fixated on Cybersecurity (which is not a bad thing).
While no one knows exactly who will be at this roundtable or what will be said, we can't resist imagining what might happen. Here — for the sake of science (and technology) — are some educated guesses and entertainingly speculative hypotheses about who will be there, what's on their agendas, and how they may behave behind closed doors.
The Players
Venture Capitalist Pete Thiel
Agenda: Thiel is a German immigrant who made billions in the U.S.A., which means he may be trying to smooth the road between jumpy tech leaders and an "America First" President-Elect who thinks the H-1B visa program is a ruse to swap highly-paid Americans for minimum-wage-or-less immigrants. He may also seek to bridge the gap between his own libertarian technology sector interests and Trump's apparently shallow understanding of technology and innovation.
Personality: Thiel is a take-no prisoners, billionaire power-broker in Silicon Valley who, with Trump, clearly sees an opportunity to significantly enhance his impact.
Conflicts: Thiel is not exactly an impartial interlocutor, having once heavily favored Google over Apple. Not clear how these companies will accept him as Trump's chief tech whisperer.
Apple CEO Tim Cook
Agenda: Apple's CEO has already engage with Trump (or maybe Trump just talked at him) about manufacturing iPhones in the U.S. Cook will want to clarify why moving manufacturing stateside would completely alter the iPhone economic model and adversely impact the American consumer. He'll also want to hear about Trump's visa stance and plans for increasing STEM education in the U.S. He wants to find a way to work with this new President, while maintaining Apple's clean supply chain, profitability and consumer electronics mind-share dominance.
Personality: Ever the southern gentleman, Tim Cook will still work hard to remain calm and collected throughout this meeting. The hard-nosed Cook, who has occasionally emerges on earnings calls and in interviews will probably result in some sharp retorts.
Conflicts: Trump's opposition to same-sex marriage will put him at odds with the openly-gay CEO.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
Agenda: Zuckerberg is keenly interested in globalization. Without expansion into emerging markets like India and Africa, Facebook's growth will flat-line. Trump's protectionism and isolationist bent could be a problem. Zuckerberg also has a vested interest in attracting more talent from outside the U.S., not less. The H1-B visa question will be high on his agenda.
Personality: Once the cocky Harvard drop-out, Zuckerberg is now more apt to listen to wise men and women. What he knows of Trump is the polarizing showman who campaigned for 18 months, a campaign that also helped spark that big fake news problem. Trump's Art of the Dealwas pulbished in 1987, when Zuckerberg was three. The generation gab could be Yuge. It's unclear how this ultimate millennial will connect with the Baby Boomer.
Conflicts: Zuckerberg may still be smarting over Trump's awkward pre-nup comments.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai
Agenda: Google needs a steady supply of engineers and is happy to welcome them from the U.S. or other countries. Trump's protectionism probably scares him, too. Trump also doesn’t seem to trust tech companies to protect consumer interests, rights and privacy. Pichai will be looking for any signs that the new President is going to clamp down on the information Google can collect.
Personality: Sundar Pichai is the greenest of all CEOs and remains a bit of a cipher. He primarily projects an air of keen intelligence and placid equanimity. Pichai may find common ground with fellow immigrant Thiel, but will he connect with Trump or finally show "Hulk" side?
Conflicts: Pichai may wonder if Trump understands even a quarter of all the things Google does.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos
Agenda: Jeff Bezos just wants to sell stuff to everyone. He has big plans to expand Amazon is new and untested ways (like a brick-and-mortar grocery store). Trumps public comments about how Amazon pays its taxes surely has Bezos on high alert and, as someone with an acerbic edge, it's unlikely Bezos will remain silent. Plus, he has that little newspaper, which means Trump really, really doesn't like him
Personality: Bezos may be the most volatile CEO in the group. It'll be interesting to see if he can keep his cool as Thiel, or perhaps Trump himself, dresses him down about taxes and Amazon's corporate structure. He is the one least likely to walk out of the meeting smiling.
Conflicts: Trump's fixation with The Washington Post may derail more critical discussions about Amazon's business.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey
Agenda: Dorsey may wonder why he's in the room. Trump clearly loves his platform and uses it for maxium effect. In the meantime, Dorsey has his hands full preparing Twitter for a sale. He may simply want to survive this conversation.
Personality: Dorsey is a fairly quiet, almost shy person who seems deeply pained by the devastation wrought by trolls on his own platform.
Conflicts: Dorsey is clearly struggling with Trump's use of Twitter to propel his cult of personality and presidential campaign.
The conversation
If we assume that Thiel, along with incoming White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and uber-close adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, will deliver messages to the tech company executives from the President Elect and that each company will then voice its own concerns and hopes for a Trump Presidency, the tech round table should go something like this.
Thiel: Thank you, everyone, for coming this afternoon. I know you’re all very busy and the President Elect appreciates you taking the time to meet with him…er…me…er…us. For each of you, I would like to read President Elect Trump’s short, prepared statement.
Let's start with Google. From the President-Elect:
"Mr. Pichai, I need you to clear something up for me. Are you a media company or just IT support for the world? A few years ago, I asked you to fix Obama’s awful healthcare web site? Did you ever get that done? But then I noticed that you actually control the search results for the news we read. So, that makes you part of the media. Not a big fan of the media, you know, but if you handle tech support for the Trump Presidency, I can give you a pass."
Google CEO Sundar Pichai: Obviously, Mr. Trump, we at Google care deeply about technology, but we normally do not provide tech support. As for being a media company, I’d say we’re best described as an information or knowledge company.
As for our concerns and the major issues we think our industry will face in the coming years, I would put privacy at or near the top of the list. Will a Trump administration act more or less like the European Union in this regard? Do you expect to increase scrutiny of companies like ours or, through de-regulation, take a more laissez faire approach?
Thiel:Excellent questions! I’m sure President-Elect will make his positions clear by January 20.
Thiel: Mr. Trump had this message for you, Mr. Zuckerberg:
“I really enjoyed my visit to Facebook where you let me sign the wall. It would be nice if, considering I’m about to become President of the United States, you could clear away some of the other names around mine.
Also, I’m a big fan of you, Mark. You’re a really, really brilliant guy, but I’m still wondering if you took my advice and got that pre-nup. You’ve got to protect yourself.
Lastly, I very concerned about Fake News. We need to stamp it out. A lot of it seems to come directly out of Facebook. Mark, if it’s fake, I want you to flag it, remove it and make people stop it. Just stop it."
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg: Mr. Trump, I have no comment on your pre-nup question. As for the wall, that may be the one we moved from our old location. We have no plans to add or remove any more names.
On the Fake news front, we share your concerns and are working to manage the situation.
Our question to you, Mr. Trump, is similar to Google’s, but extends to personal freedoms. I know you have grave concerns about cybersecurity and cyber terrorism. How much do you think you will rely on social platforms like ours to find and report on people and their activities on our social network in an effort to ferret out potential terrorists? We’re worried that personal freedoms may be impinged.
We’d also love to talk to you, and within this forum, Mr. Trump, about your commitment to bringing more tech talent to the states. We know that you consider the HB1-Visa program a strategy for substituting temporary foreign workers for American workers at lower pay. Obviously, we see things differently and would like to know how you plan to help America innovate by either growing engineering talent at home or opening the door for the same talent from abroad.
Thiel: These are great questions. I’m sure Mr. Trump will respond within his first 100 days.
Here’s what President Elect Trump wanted to share with you. Mr. Bezos:
"I’m a big fan of Amazon. I’ve even sold my best-selling books on it. However, I’m gravely concerned that Amazon does not pay a fair share of its taxes. As you know, I plan to lower the corporate tax rate from 35% to 15%. However, Amazon’s habit of not paying taxes in the states in which it does business, especially those flyover states that elected me President, and keeping its global headquarters in Luxemburg (Luxemburg! Why didn’t I think of that?) is no good. As I said, now that I’m president, you have a huge problem. This tax stuff is all bad and it has to stop. Seriously, I know the tax code so well that I was smart enough to pay as little taxes as possible, but I did it in a fair way. You would know this if you looked at my tax returns, which I will release as soon as the audit is done."
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos: Obviously, we believe we pay all of our taxes in every country in which we operate. Amazon will continue to do that and look forward to whatever caproate tax breaks a Trump Presidency might have in store.
My concern is about the second amendment. I know that you and the media have not seen eye-to-eye, but, as the owner of The Washington Post, I would like to know how strongly you will protect our First Amendment and the Freedom of the Press. It’s obviously the foundation upon which much of this country was built.
Thiel: Yes, the media will still be a focus for President Elect Trump leading up to and continuing after he takes office. BTW: Question for the room, how soon after Mr. Trump takes office can he nominate a new supreme court justice?
Now, onto Mr. Cook. Tim, Mr. Trump sent along this statement:
“First of all, I have always loved the iPhone (and Apple, too, I used to own a lot of Apple stock). Used it for years and was pleased when you finally took my advice and made a larger phone. I asked for 10% bigger and you did it! I have to ask, though, when will you bring in someone more like Steve Jobs? No offense, Tim, but you are not him and he must still be spinning in his grave wondering when you are going to act just like him.
I also want to make it clear that when I – meaning the government I run – ask for something, you are going to give it (this goes for everyone in the room). Nothing will make the country greater or safer than the NSA being able to listen in to phone conversations when they need to and the FBI and DOJ being able to unlock access to any iPhone (or Samsung phone – that’s the other main company right?) whenever they need to. There will be penalties for those who do not comply.
More specifically for you, Tim. How quickly can we get on building that iPhone factory in the U.S? Just tell me what we need to do to make that happen. It’s just sad that all our phones are built in China and you know how I feel about China. Also, never apologize to China."
Apple CEO Tim Cook: Well, there’s a lot to unpack there. Suffice to say that we will always strive to protect the privacy of our customers, but do comply with government requests when we can and when it does not put our entire business and user-base at risk.
As for the factories, well there are many complex reasons why we build outside the U.S. Moving production here could mean huge costs that would have to be passed along to customers.
Also, if, Mr. Trump, you want more skilled work to happen here, we need the tools to make or find more skilled workers: better STEM education, more engineering schools and grants and HB1-Visas.
I think most of your concerns are our concerns, but we see the issues, to put it lightly, differently.
Thiel: Fascinating discussion. Perhaps, Mr. Cook, you and President Elect Trump can meet in February to discuss how we’ll bring your billions of offshore money back to the U.S,
Moving on.
Mr. Dorsey, President Elect Trump just wanted to thank you and Twitter for saving him millions in marketing dollars and helping him win the election.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey: Please thank Mr. Trump for me. He is definitely, as President-Elect, using our platform in an unprecedented way. I have to assume this is a good thing. I hope.
As for our concerns. Well, I know we have yet to get our troll problem totally under control. I would ask Trump if, as a frequent user o the service, if…if…oh, never mind.
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