Big Techs bet on Trump hasnt yielded special favors

On Inauguration Day 2025, tech titans like Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, and Sundar Pichai secured front-row seats, their $1 million donations and Mar-a-Lago visits seemingly successful in endearing themselves to the President they had for years tried to censor.Yet, months into his second term, the millions they spent on Trump — along with billions pledged by OpenAI, Apple, and Meta for US investment (Zuckerberg even bought a house in D.C.) — hasn’t won them any favors.

Big Tech now faces relentless antitrust scrutiny, with a spate of recent reports suggesting their efforts to win over Trump have produced no real benefits.Meta is facing a suit from the FTC over allegations the company’s acquisitions have given it monopolistic power.Apple is contending with a suit from the DOJ over concerns it has created a monopoly in the smartphone market.

Google is dealing with suits from the DOJ over concerns about monopolies in its ad tech and search businesses.“Zuckerberg pumped millions of dollars… and all he got was going to court,” one source with knowledge of Trump’s thinking on tech said.“They got nothing other than Inauguration seats,” the source added, noting that tech leaders opposed Trump’s preferred antitrust nominees to FTC and DOJ Antitrust — Andrew Ferguson, Gail Slater, and Mark Meador — yet lost those battles. “The Facebook lawsuit is still going forward and now there are rumors swirling of a potential lawsuit against Apple.”Steve Bannon, who I interviewed earlier this week, told me those coveted inauguration seats were about Trump flexing — not about owing Silicon Valley any favors.“They were all sitting there thinking they own President Trump … it turned out President Trump started crushing them, whether in federal court or with other anti-trust, anti-trust efforts,” Bannon said.While tech leaders have ramped up their visits to the White House in recent months, the aides who Trump works with day-in and day-out are nudging h...