The scene opens confusingly. The camera zooms too close to the president’s face; the table at which the tech executives are seated seems far too long. Mark Zuckerberg is there, and Bill Gates and Tim Cook and Satya Nadella and Sam Altman and on and on, a baker’s dozen or so of Silicon Valley’s most powerful people—cutthroat competitors all—united here to pledge allegiance to Donald Trump.
These men are more than powerful enough to go against Trump
“I want to thank you for setting the tone such that we could make a major investment in the United States,” said Cook, referring to Apple’s pledge to put $600 billion into US manufacturing. Given that Apple made that commitment under threat of crippling tariffs on smartphones
Former White House strategist Steve Bannon had a conniption over the dinner earlier in the day. He dedicated a significant portion of his speech Thursday at the far-right National Conservatism Conference to attacking Big Tech “oligarchs,” and during an episode of his podcast he claimed the person who arranged the dinner should be “perp-walked” out of the White House. article
Sure, but what play is being performed here?