Within weeks of Donald Trump’s 2016 victory, many top tech leaders found themselves in a meeting at Trump Tower, Frowning and quite obviously full of fear. Now, those same executives sound enthusiastic when they say they look forward to working with the next president.
After Tuesday’s election, congratulations to Trump from the tech elite came quickly. Everyone from the day after he secured the White House Tim Cook from Mark Zuckerberg posted their best wishes for Trump’s second term. Even Jeff Bezos to weighHailed Trump’s “remarkable political comeback and decisive victory”. This, from a man, More than that A public confrontation With Trump.
But the newfound appreciation doesn’t signal a political realignment in Silicon Valley. Tech executives as well as rank-and-file workers Overwhelmingly support Kamala Harris election, which shouldn’t be too surprising: He’s been involved in Bay Area politics for years and deep bond With the technology and venture capital industries. That loyalty continues the trend of the Obama era, which was marked by a bit of a love fest between Washington and Silicon Valley. Barack Obama, who won the White House in 2008 With help from Facebook co-founder Chris HughesEmbraces the principles of startup culture and celebrates tech companies as a positive force in the United States He developed personal relationships with Zuckerberg and executives like him Technology-friendly policies are championed.
Now that era is over. In its place is something darker and predominated by a small but very vocal group of techno-libertarian Trump fans whose ranks include not only Elon Musk but also some of the industry’s most influential investors, most PayPal Mafiaand vice president-elect.
Does this mean the tech industry has taken a right turn? Silicon Valley is now Trump’s country?
“It’s not left or right, Democrat or Republican,” Margaret O’MaraA professor of American history at the University of Washington, told me after the election. He notes that Silicon Valley’s tech industry culture has its roots in post-Vietnam baby boomers seeing the personal computer as a form of liberation.
“They don’t think they have much in common with political conservatives, but they share a liberalism that runs its course across the political spectrum,” O’Mara added. “It’s a kind of funny libertarianism.”
You get a sense of Silicon Valley’s anti-bureaucratic worldview from everything Apple’s famous “1984” adWhich suggests quite literally tearing down the establishment, from Google’s 20 percent rule is celebratedwhich allows employees to work on side projects of their own choice. There is a more extreme version of this philosophy in the tech industry, especially lately, that leans toward anti-establishment thinking, which explains their affinity for crypto. These 21st century techno-libertarians just want to be left alone to make things and make money.
The tech executives who are busy kissing the ring this week are not part of this crowd. The Tim Cooks of the world are just doing business, and that requires doing business with the President of the United States, whoever that may be. After a tumultuous first Trump administration, these leaders learned that the president-elect responds best to flattery and praise. They actually are Sucking Trump for months Hoping they could have some influence on his return to office.
This will be useful for many reasons. The Biden administration, in a break from Obama, has been tough on Big Tech. He appointed antitrust legal star Lina Khan as chairman of the Federal Trade Commission and she ascended. Multiple antitrust cases Against the country’s biggest tech companies, including Amazon, Microsoft and Meta. Currently eat Waiting to see if he will keep his jobAnd the lawsuits target Trump, who could decide Khan’s fate. In addition to less intense regulatory scrutiny, tech companies will also enjoy lower corporate taxes, which Trump has promised to pay.
“In my mind, it’s not a story about Silicon Valley as a whole and D.C. as a whole,” he said Robert LalkaA professor at Tulane University. “Instead, what’s happening now involves much less people’s influence: a very close network of like-minded Trump supporters, especially if we focus on the PayPal mafia, and the transformation of the Republican Party and its policy agenda.”
The PayPal Mafia refers to a group of entrepreneurs who helped found or build massively influential tech companies in their early days before working for PayPal. If you had to pick a godfather of the PayPal mafia — and therefore a leader of this pro-Trump techno-libertarian political revolution — it would be Peter Thiel. The PayPal co-founder donated more than $1 million to the Trump campaign in 2016 and spent $10 million to help JD Vance win a Senate seat in Ohio in 2022. Thiel also helped finance a project Establishing autonomous, floating nations in international waterswhere they shall be free from all laws and regulations—a reason he is called “Techno-libertarianism incarnate“
Motivating techno-libertarians, Also known now as techno-authoritarianare more curved. Elon Musk, who is also a PayPal co-founder, emerged as Trump’s biggest supporter this year. About $119 million in donations to his campaign Through his America PAC and has made the promotion of free speech one of his missions. There is also freedom of speech A big part of whyAfter accusing it of censorship, Musk bought Twitter in 2022 and turned it into X, where right-wing propaganda and disinformation may or may not help Trump get elected.
It’s not hard to see why Musk would benefit from a closer relationship with the White House. The billionaire certainly didn’t have much to do with the Biden administration, which stuck him at an electric car summit, a case in point. Musk reportedly led Trump to hug him. Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX, earns billions of dollars through government contracts, while his car company, Tesla, is lobbying for fewer regulations around self-driving cars. Tries to launch a robotaxi business. Musk’s company acquired Tesla Energy, formerly SolarCity billion in subsidies over the years and certainly looks set to benefit from the federal government’s continued investment in energy transition. Trump has already promised Musk A role in his administration As “cost-cutting secretary” — a position that doesn’t yet exist, but one Trump seems seriously entertaining.
Other loud pro-Trump voices in Silicon Valley share a web of connections with each other and with Musk. There are former PayPal COOs and Musk herd David Sachs, who spoke at the Republican National Convention in July; Joe Lonsdale, who co-founded Palantir with Peter Thiel and helped launch Musk’s America PAC; and Marc Andreessen, who published a 5,200-word techno-optimist manifesto last year Technology envisions leaders as custodians of social order.
It is worth noting that not every member of the PayPal mafia has pledged allegiance to Trump. Reid Hoffman, another former PayPal COO and LinkedIn co-founder, is a prominent Democratic Party fundraiser. He has donated $7 million to pro-Harris and pro-Biden PACs, though he is a vocal Lina Khan critic. He was also on a list Over 100 venture capitalists Those who threw their support behind Harris heading into the election.
And then there are cryptocurrencies.
Andreessen’s VC firm announced in 2022 that it was going all-in on crypto, a bet that is starting to pay off. Feeling so stupid after two years. Trump promised Creating a strategic cryptocurrency reserve for the US government in his second term. Trump’s General Anti-Regulation, Pro-Crypto Stance Has Sent Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies Down Rising to an all-time high After the election night, a widely covered follow Crypto winter which lasted for several years.
You could argue that the crypto vote was crucial in helping Trump and many other Republican candidates win as well. Emerged as crypto industry One of the strongest lobbying forces in the countryThey pour millions of dollars into races against politicians they think are anti-crypto — and it’s working. So far, 48 candidates backed by pro-crypto PACs have won their races this year. Zero lost.
When you think about it this way, Trump’s victory behind tech-authoritarian billionaires seems less like a seismic shift in tech industry politics and more like a bunch of one-issue voters who donated a lot of money and got their way. .
“I think a lot of it is about crypto,” O’Mara said. “Crypto is also tied — and always tied — to a larger worldview, one of libertarianism, deregulated or privately controlled markets separate from government.” He described this policy as “escape from the state”.
Now, techno-libertarians are the state. The day after Trump announced victory, he asked Musk to join him on a call With Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. And in the coming months, several other members of the PayPal mafia may decide what US technology policy will be for the next four years.
You have to wonder if they just want to tear it down. Or maybe they get fed up and move to a country floating in international waters where there are no laws and never have been.
