Big Tech Goes to Washington to ‘Kiss Trump’s Ring’ — But MAGA Fans Remain Skeptical

WASHINGTON DC – The dais behind newly re-elected President Trump was filled with the biggest names in Big Tech on Monday at the inauguration — to the point where it would be easier to name the CEOs who were not in Washington, D.C. than those who were.

Prominently seated behind President Trump at the U.S. Capitol were: X and Tesla boss Elon Musk, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and Google chief Sundar Pichai. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew — whose app thanked Trump after it was revived following a brief shutdown on Sunday — and OpenAI chief Sam Altman were also spotted.

Their smiling faces as the president took the oath of office signaled how monumentally the tech zeitgeist has shifted in the four years since Trump was last in the White House. A once-combative relationship between Big Tech and Trump’s Make America Great Again movement has apparently blossomed into a love affair, or at least a transactional crush.

But outside at the frigid U.S. Capitol, where giddy-but-shivering Trump supporters celebrated his return to the White House, skeptics of the budding tech-MAGA alliance were easy to find. Only Musk — who backed Trump with more than $277 million in the 2024 presidential campaign and publicly campaigned for him in key swing states — was given a widespread pass from the attendees.

“I think they should’ve supported him sooner, because it seems a little bit disingenuous now,” Matthew Palmer, a Gen Z Trump supporter from Ohio who was donning a black MAGA cap, told TheWrap. “Not Elon, though. Maybe Zuckerberg.”

That sentiment was the norm, not the exception on Monday.

“I can’t speak to Musk, but I think Zuckerberg, Tim Cook — I think it’s all just to kiss Trump’s ring,” Lou Johnston, who traveled from Hawaii for the inauguration, said near The National Archives. “I don’t think they’re in his corner, for sure — and he should be careful with who he aligns himself with.”

The optimism Trump’s supporters felt on Monday was matched by the tech execs in attendance. Musk, notably, took the stage at Capital One Arena following Trump’s inauguration and told the 20,000 attendees he was “fired up for the future.”

“Thank you for making it happen,” Musk said about Trump’s White House comeback. “My heart goes out to you. It is thanks to you that the future of civilization is assured.”

He then pounded his heart and gave what appeared to be a Nazi salute, which led to a wave of shock and criticism online. (Musk has denounced claims he’s an anti-Semite previously, telling CNBC in 2023, “I’m a pro-Semite, if anything.”)

Of course, the day was also filled with its fair share of bizarre tech storylines. Zuckerberg, who runs Instagram and Facebook as part of his Meta empire, was the subject of many punchlines on X, after he was seemingly caught on camera looking at the cleavage of Bezos’ fiancée, Lauren Sanchez. (In fairness, she was criticized for wearing a plunging neckline and peekaboo lingerie underneath.)

From a macro standpoint, the pro-Trump optics and gestures from the major tech execs stands in stark contrast to the climate that existed when he left office in 2021.

Following the Jan. 6 Capitol Riot, Trump was removed from every major social platform in the U.S., including Twitter, which permanently banned his account. (Trump’s account was later reinstated after Musk bought the platform in 2022.) Zuckerberg did something similar by “indefinitely” banning Trump from Facebook and Instagram, saying at the time “the risks” of keeping him on the platforms were “simply too great.”

Now, many of those same CEOs who once criticized Trump are cozying up to him.

Trump’s supporters saw through the pivot. They are “sucking up” to Trump, said a an attendee named Steven from Utah who declined to give his last name. “They didn’t think he’d be back in office. Now that he is, they have to play nice.”

MNSBC’s Rachel Maddow, meanwhile, was alarmed by the sight of the tech elite literally backing up Trump on Monday.

“How is this happening? Why are people with tons of money up on the dais with cabinet nominees and family members?” she asked during the network’s inaugural coverage.

It’s one of the few topics on which Maddow could find common ground with members of the MAGA crowd. And their cynicism is not unfounded; each of the major tech executives in Washington on Monday stands to gain from maintaining a good relationship with the president.

Meta — which recently drew the ire of many left-leaning pundits for the decision to end its third-party fact checking system — will face an antitrust lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission in April. And the U.S. Justice Department is currently pushing for a breakup of Google, after a federal judge ruled last summer the company held an illegal monopoly in the online search market.

Still, not every MAGA fan at the Capitol looked at Big Tech’s sudden change of heart towards Trump with a jaundiced eye.

“I think it’s important that the tech companies and Trump work together moving forward,” Derek Stuart, who traveled to Washington with his wife and daughter from Delaware, told TheWrap.

TikTok in the Spotlight

The other major tech storyline on Monday was the future of TikTok.

By day’s end on Monday, Trump had signed an executive order to block the implementation of a law banning the social media app.

Owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, TikTok was set to be banned from the U.S. starting on Sunday. Last April, President Biden signed a law banning new downloads of the app and prohibiting it from being carried by Apple and Google’s app stores, unless ByteDance sold its American business.

The main concern U.S. lawmakers had with TikTok is that it could easily double as a spyware app for the Chinese Communist Party. ByteDance, if asked by the CCP, is compelled by Chinese law to share user data, including what users type on their phones and their location.

Reagan Smelkison, a 24-year-old Virginia native who dressed up as a Revolutionary War-era founder on Monday told TheWrap that possibility does not concern him.

“I’m not worried about the Chinese. Not at all,” Smelkinon said, while waiting to see the presidential motorcade drive past the crowd lining Constitution Ave. “The people who pose more of a threat to us are the United States government and Israel.”

He added that he was happy Trump was going to sign an executive order granting TikTok an extension to make a deal. TikTok would ideally enter a “joint venture” in which the U.S. owns a 50% stake in the company, Trump said on Sunday.

That plan was met with overwhelming support from Trumpers, both on Sunday night at a TikTok-sponsored party in Washingon, D.C. and on Monday at the Capitol.

“I’m definitely glad that Trump’s saving it,” 18-year-old MaKinley Stuart said. “I like that he’s trying to put our national security ahead and he’s going to try and fix that with his 90-day extension.”

Stuart, who was sporting a pink “Trump 2024” hat, added that Trump’s about-face on TikTok — he initially supported banning the app during his first term, before saying last year he wants to “save” it — helped him win over a large swath of young voters. A Tufts University exit poll found Trump won 46% of voters 18-29 in the 2024 election, compared to 36% from that same cohort in 2020.

“He got on the platform last summer and gained a bigger, younger audience there,” Stuart said.

Others, like a 35-year-old man from upstate New York who only identified as Mike, said they supported keeping TikTok around on First Amendment grounds.

“I’m very happy to hear Trump is working to keep TikTok around,” he told TheWrap. “There are some national security concerns. However, it is very important that we still exercise our right to free speech… I believe that President Trump will make things right.”

That was the same argument TikTok’s lawyers made before the U.S. Supreme Court — an argument that was unanimously shot down last Friday.

But when it comes to tech, the MAGA faithful on Monday said they trust that Trump will make sharp decisions during his second term. In their eyes, though, whether he should trust Big Tech is broadly seen as another matter — even with the top CEOs behind him.

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