President Donald Trump hosted a dinner with Big Tech executives on Thursday night, and some of his fiercest supporters, who have been critical lately of the close relationship he’s built with the industry, are up in arms about the soiree.
Thursday’s dinner featured some of America’s most prominent tech executives, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Apple CEO Tim Cook (one notable exception was Trump ally-turned-critic Elon Musk, who didn’t attend but said he had a representative there in his place). The assembled executives lavished Trump with praise, portraying him as a godsend to American innovation and industry, despite evidence to the contrary.
“There isn’t a single Trump supporter who is going to be happy to see this photo tonight,” wrote bigoted Trump-whisperer Laura Loomer in a misinformation-fueled tweet that falsely claimed that executives like Zuckerberg helped to steal the 2020 election from Trump.
The sentiment was echoed by other online MAGA acolytes.
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones claimed the “BIG TECH LEGION OF DOOM SURROUNDED TRUMP AT THE WHITE HOUSE” in a post to X that linked to a 20-minute tirade against the White House for inviting Microsoft founder Bill Gates to the dinner.
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.
So continues a growing civil war in MAGA world.
When it comes to Trump and many of his supporters, there seems to be a clear divide on Big Tech. Trump seems eager to welcome these businesspeople into the political fold so long as they flatter him with praise (or literal gifts). Meanwhile, many of his followers still don’t trust the executives — for various reasons, not all of them based in reality — and are apoplectic at the sight of them hobnobbing with their leader.