How tech bros have traded their principles away to keep in with Trump

After Trump learnt that Jeff Bezos’s Amazon was to detail the cost of tariffs to its customers, the White House accused him of a ‘hostile act’ and Bezos seemed to row back. This was just the latest in an embarrassing suite of abasement from the US’s tech elite, writes Sean O'Grady

As is well known by now, Jeff Bezos owns Amazon, the Blue Origin space tourism company, and The Washington Post. He is worth about $200bn and that makes him the second-richest person in the world. None of that, however, protected him from a reportedly “angry” phone call from Donald Trump.

The president was incensed to learn that Amazon, or at least some province of Bezos’s sprawling online empire, proposed to detail the cost of the Trump trade tariffs to its customers. Given the quantity of gear Amazon ships in from China, that would be a considerable embarrassment to the Trump administration, which maintains, tragi-comically, that consumers don’t pay the import tax; the foreigners, in this case, the Chinese, or possibly Amazon itself, do.

It would bring home to any Americans left in any doubt that tariffs are simply a sales tax on imports that, set at Trumpian levels, will fall mainly to customers. It would expose the president to the claim that he was being less than transparent about his policy. Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s ultra-loyal press secretary, also went on the offensive in public: “This is a hostile and political act by Amazon,” adding, illogically and irrelevantly: “Why didn’t Amazon do this when the Biden administration hiked inflation to the highest level in 40 years?”

Trump said of his conversation: “Jeff Bezos was very nice. He was terrific. He solved the problem very quickly. Good guy.”

Interesting. How far, if at all, Bezos chose to kick back isn’t clear, but, in any case, Bezos has once again sacrificed truth for the cause of keeping Trump sweet. This shouldn’t come as a huge surprise, given that earlier this year he emasculated the editorial independence of The Washington Post, demanding: “We are going to be writing every day in support and defence of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets. We’ll cover other topics too, of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.”

No surprise, either, given that Bezos was one of 10 prominent tech oligarchs parked at the front of the inauguration audience 101 days ago; a “Billionaires Row”, with a collective net worth comfortably in excess of a trillion dollars. The others paying obeisance to their liege lord compromised a who’s who of the architects of the modern economy: Tim Cook (Apple); Sergey Brin (Alphabet/Google/YouTube); Shou Zi Chew (Tik Tok, and comparatively less rich); Mark Zuckerberg (Meta/Facebook/Instagram); Sam Altman (OpenAI), and of course Elon Musk, emperor of X.

All west-coast types; all formerly vaguely liberal and Democrat in their sympathies, and now all supporters of Trump – or at least, quiescent in the face of his excesses. They dressed casual and they seemed laissez-faire. After the collapse in prestige and fortunes of the investment bank tycoons in the global financial crisis, they became the new “masters of the universe” – almost literally, given their dreams of interplanetary commuting. But now they find themselves all kissing the ring of an old-style, menacing real estate guy from Manhattan: a man who habitually wears a suit and is entirely unfamiliar with even the basics of coding.

But for how long?

Bezos was one of 10 prominent tech oligarchs parked at the front of the inauguration audience 101 days ago; a ‘Billionaires Row’, with a collective net worth comfortably in excess of a trillion dollars (AFP/Getty)

You can see how a fairly unhealthy symbiotic relationship could arise when the political and techno establishments are so closely linked together, with all the dangers of mixed loyalties, conflicted interests and cosy deals this implies. Certainly, Musk, as the head of Doge, and Trump were criticised for that, with Trump offering up the defence that Musk doesn’t need the money. The association with Trump did Musk’s reputation no good and probably damaged sales of his Tesla electric cars.

But the real damage that Trump could inflict on the tech bros is only now becoming clearer. Before he rowed with Bezos, if you recall, Trump and Musk were seen through a window having a stand-up argument, and there are reasons to believe that Musk strongly objects to Trump’s tariffs – they are very bad for a man who does so much business in China (albeit they hit his Chinese rivals harder), and Musk doesn’t see why America should try and make everything. Trump’s intention to scrap the electric car mandate and spending on the charging infrastructure are also retrograde steps for Musk’s automotive ambitions.

Indeed, Trump’s economic policies are deeply damaging to all their interests because these transnational businesses are the epitome of the globalisation that Trump has dedicated himself to destroying. He even wanted to shut down TikTok (or “TikTak”, as he calls it) before someone told him this Chinese platform is extremely popular with his base.

The tech giants thrive in a world of open access and open borders, where regulation is minimised and innovation encouraged. In some respects, Trump is a godsend, bullying foreign governments to give his friends tax breaks and light-touch regulators; but in other respects, Trump is a disaster. A trade war with China triggering a global recession is not going to boost profits at any of these enterprises. There is also the danger that deglobalisation will spur China (and maybe even sclerotic old Europe) to develop more of their own alternatives to, say, Musk’s Starlink satellites, Apple’s smart devices, or the various AI generators.

Trump promises America a “golden age” reminiscent of an earlier one, the “Gilded Age” before the First World War, when a previous generation of American oligarchs, controlling the new industries of their time – railroads, oil, steel, investment banks – exercised undue influence and power. In one of his last acts as president, Joe Biden warned about a recrudescence of such a world, with its obscene inequalities and injustices. Eventually, the American people rebelled, elected “trust-busters” to Congress and the White House and liberated themselves by breaking up the monopolies.

The tech bros would do well to avoid such a fate and edge a little further away from the growing unpopularity of President Trump.