Donald Trump’s inauguration as the new president-elect of the United States will take place on January 20, 2025. As the date approaches, some companies are attempting to reconcile their positions following a complex relationship in the past. Sundar Pichai—CEO of Google—and Jeff Bezos—CEO of Amazon—are among the names who will have—or had—a meeting with Trump.
Google and Amazon have not been among Donald Trump’s favorite tech companies. Starting with the Mountain View giant, Trump accused Google’s search engine multiple times of having a political bias against him during the presidential campaign. The new president-elect claimed that Google intentionally hid positive news about him and gave more prominence to negative ones. On the other hand, the CEO of Amazon was not among those supporting the Republican campaign during the last elections.
Sundar Pichai reportedly met Trump this week; Jeff Bezos will do it next week
Despite their differences, the CEOs of two of the biggest tech companies in the world agreed to meet with Donald Trump. According to The Information, Sundar Pichai flew to Palm Beach, Florida, on Thursday. On the other hand, Trump himself confirmed that the meeting with Jeff Bezos will take place next week.
Google and Amazon, both under the scrutiny of regulators in the US, are better off being on favorable terms with Donald Trump. Especially in the case of Google, whose antitrust cases have advanced further, with some unfavorable rulings against it. That said, according to The Information’s report, Pichai won’t “make any direct overtures to Trump about the antitrust lawsuit or other regulatory topics.”
Trump also revealed that he has already received calls from Google’s CEO in recent weeks. However, Pichai said that these calls have “nothing to do” with the regulatory pressure on Google. Donald Trump has remained cautious when commenting on potential actions related to the company’s current situation. He has only said that he would “do something” regarding the potential breakup proposed by the DOJ.
Mark Zuckerberg has also smoothed things over with Trump
Previously, Donald Trump also met with Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta. The relationship with Zuckerberg has also had rocky moments in the past. The 47th president of the United States even went so far as to threaten to jail him. However, the relationship seems a little better currently, with Zuckerberg apologizing over the phone for an issue related to a photo of the July 13 assassination attempt. The CEO of Meta also reportedly donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund.
