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Author: Jessica, Silicon Star Pro
This past weekend, almost all social media headlines and comment sections in the United States were occupied by news of Trump’s shooting.
On the evening of July 13 local time, former US President Donald Trump was attacked by a gunman while attending a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. He was hit by a bullet in his right ear. Then he left the scene under the protection of Secret Service personnel to conduct aThe attacker was shot dead.
Trump subsequently issued a statement describing his injuries, “I felt my skin was torn and a lot of blood was left.” He thanked the law enforcement officers for their quick response, extended condolences to the families of the victims and the injured audience, and said he would follow the originalPlan to go to the next itinerary, “May God bless America.”
The photos taken by an Associated Press reporter immediately became a “frozen historical form.”
1.Musk compared it to Roosevelt, and Ultraman, Nadella and others tweeted…
X became the main position of discussion.Many founders, investors and CEOs of Silicon Valley have also expressed their opinions.
Musk fully revealed his identity as supportive Trump at the first time.He said he would fully endorse “President Trump” and looked forward to his quick recovery.
Even compared Trump’s performance of toughness to Roosevelt, one of the greatest former presidents known as the “modern American shaper.”
I also empathized with the fact that I had been threatened with my life: “In the past 8 months, two people have tried to kill me on different occasions. They were arrested with guns about 20 minutes’ drive from Tesla’s headquarters.” NoIn one day, Musk had posted and reposted as many as 15 Twitter posts on his X account, publicly “cancelling” for Trump.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman usually publishes almost no content related to the industry, and recently he has been abnormal and has not posted any posts on X for more than a month. This time, he immediately posted two consecutive posts after Trump was shot.The article first said, “I’m glad President Trump is safe.”Later, as Trump supporters were increasing under his tweet, he added that he was moved to see everyone “decided together to ease their words and find more unity” instead of “submitting to the opposition between the two sides.”impulse.”
Greg Brockman, the company’s president and chairman, followed suit, “thanks to President Trump for being safe and sound”, believing the shooting “a attack on American democracy.”
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella “sents the best wishes and wishes him a speedy recovery.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook said “my heart is with him and his victims” and strongly condemns the violence.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who had previously had a tense relationship with Trump, also broke the 9-month social media silence this time, praising “our former President Trump showed great performance when facing real bulletselegance and courage.”
And Marc Andreessen, a16z co-founder who was once a public critic of Trump and said Trump’s proposal to restrict immigration was “disgusting”, has not clearly stated his support since he recently began criticizing the Biden administration.Trump also posted a picture of the American flag.
2.“It looks like the whole Silicon Valley supports Trump”
Many people have also smelled the subtle changes in the internal political stance of Silicon Valley.
Altman’s hot comments on Twitter were therefore sarcastic: “It seems that the entire Silicon Valley supports Trump, finally.”
Some people also described it as “Silicon Valley is now the new state of Texas.”
Once upon a time, Silicon Valley, the “liberal fortress”, was the first echelon that firmly opposed Trump.As a representative of innovation, openness and globalization, Silicon Valley strongly relies on international talents and a free business environment, and advocates environmental protection and social progress.
Trump is synonymous with “conservatism” and “protectionism”.
He implemented strict immigration policies and tightened H-1B visa restrictions, which were criticized by many company leaders to hinder innovation and talent introduction; he launched antitrust investigations into technology giants and strengthened supervision of social media platforms, accused of excessive intervention in free expression, and with Silicon ValleyThe open and free Internet spirit advocated is contrary to the trade wars initiated by China and other countries, which bring challenges to technology companies that rely on global supply chains and markets, and has caused widespread concerns; while Silicon Valley companies generally attach importance to sustainable development and promise to reduce carbonEmissions and investment in clean energy projects, the Trump administration implemented a “de-climate” policy, which aroused strong dissatisfaction in the technology community…
It can be said that the differences and inconsistencies between the two sides have been in the past for a long time in terms of values and policies, and even reached the point of tension.
Platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have banned Trump’s social accounts and directly banned the manipulation.Although Musk is now “loyal”, when Trump announced his withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement in 2017, he withdrew from the three presidential advisory committees in one go, saying that Trump is “a liar” and voted in 2020Biden is still supporting it.
Trump called Musk “a master who is good at talking nonsense.”During the last campaign, Trump frequently attacked Bezos, saying he used the Washington Post to avoid taxes, published defamatory reports, and had “huge antitrust problems.”Bezos fired back and said, “I hope he can send Trump to space with his own rockets.”
There is also Bill Ackman, a US hedge fund tycoon and founder and CEO of Pershing Square.After the Capitol Hill incident on January 6, 2021, Bill Ackman publicly criticized Trump, believing that he should “resign and apologize to all Americans” and raised serious questions about his leadership.
And now Bill Ackman’s position has changed 180 degrees.Yesterday, he posted a long article to publicly turn against him, announcing that he “will officially support Trump’s campaign for president.”He also said that he had the opportunity to spend a few hours with Trump recently, which gave him a deeper understanding of Trump.This decision was made “after careful and rational thinking, based on a large amount of empirical data.”
Why… it suddenly changed?
Someone commented on X that Silicon Valley’s attitude has changed a lot, and this shooting gave everyone the most reasonable opportunity to speak out.
So those few who are still “holding their positions” have become “hard” now.
As a long-time public opponent of Trump, Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and the “king of connections” of Silicon Valley, has condemned on several occasions that his leadership style is harmful to the rule of law and business environment in the United States and is unacceptable in inciting violence.
As a result, his recent public argument with Stanford alumnus, PayPal founder and well-known investor Peter Thiel was knocked out by Musk.In the confrontation of words, Thiel sarcastically thanked Hoffman for funding lawsuits against Trump, believing that these lawsuits turned Trump into a “martyr” and thus increased his chances of re-election.Hoffman responded in a sarcastic tone: “Yes, I really hope to turn him into a real martyr.”
Maas reposted: “The Reid Hoffman in the world got the wish they wanted most. But the martyrs survived.” It suggests that although the opposition to Trump made a lot of efforts, these not only failed, but were fulfilled.The sentence “anything that cannot defeat me will make me stronger.”
The Twitter brought together a large number of excited Trump supporters and sarcastic remarks about Reid Hoffman.Some people also say that the only suspect at the moment seems to be this person.
This led to Hoffman having to send a response in person.Reiterate that he firmly opposes violence, and Trump should not encourage violence during riots in Congress.In addition, the so-called “hope to Trump become a martyr” in the debate with Thiel means being responsible for his lies and actions, not physically harmed.
As a result… I was scolded again.Some people in the comment section called him Reid “woke” Hoffman, some asked him to apologize, and some asked him to delete his account directly.Naval Ravikant, a legendary investor in Silicon Valley and the “founder of equity crowdfunding”, criticized, “Stop funding and defending legal warfare. That monster will eventually devour you.”
3.“Openly supporting Trump will not face the reaction and opposition that was like eight years ago”
In fact, Silicon Valley has been changing its direction for some time.
More than a month ago, Trump hosted a fundraiser here, hosted by investors David O. Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya, located in a luxury home in Sacks San Francisco.
The ticket prices for event range from $50,000 to $500,000, of which $300,000 of the VIP treatment for “priority dinner seating” and “photo with Trump” require donations of $300,000.Tickets sold out early, attracting many Silicon Valley technology leaders and investors, including Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman, Winklevoss brothers in the cryptocurrency field, Jacob Helberg, senior policy consultant at data analysis provider Palantir Technologies, and the 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000Monetary Bill Ackman and others raised a total of $12 million in campaign funds.
Helberg has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Biden administration in the past, and this time he has donated $1 million to Trump publicly and said now “will not face eight years ago when people like me publicly support Trump.That kind of reaction and objection.”
And this change is not because of how excellent Trump himself is, to be precise, it is “all based on his peers.”There are comments that Silicon Valley may not support Trump much, but they do become very opposed to Biden.
From initial strong opposition to recent gradual support, behind the balance tilting towards Trump is actually driven by dissatisfaction with the current US economic policies, regulatory environment, and Biden administration.
For example, in terms of industry regulation, the Biden administration conducted antitrust investigations on technology giants such as Nvidia, Microsoft and OpenAI, and high-pressure supervision in emerging technologies such as cryptocurrencies and AI has made many Silicon Valley people worried that it will seriously restrict technological innovation and industry development.
The Trump administration has promoted regulatory measures in multiple industries to reduce corporate compliance burden and operating costs.For example, in 2018, it proposed to reduce the federal regulatory and regulatory barriers to self-driving cars, and encourage state and private enterprises to provide greater flexibility for technology research and development and testing. Since then, Waymo and Tesla businesses have developed significantly; instructing FAA to simplifyThe commercial licensing program of drones has prompted Amazon and UPS to expand coverage of drone delivery services.
In terms of economic policy and tax reform, in 2017, Trump passed the Tax Cut and Employment Act, which cuts corporate tax rates from 35% to 21%.And lower the personal income tax rate for high-income people, while increasing the standard deduction.He also introduced a minimum tax rate on foreign income, aiming to encourage U.S. companies to turn overseas profits back home.This is especially beneficial to Silicon Valley technology companies and the large group of “rich people” behind the companies.In fact, Trump has also hinted that as long as he is in power, he will serve the immediate economic interests of 1% or even 0.001% of the top rich people, which is the group where Silicon Valley bigwigs are located.
By comparison, Biden proposed raising the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28% to increase federal revenue.Increase taxes for individuals with annual incomes of more than $400,000, and cancel some tax cuts for high-income earners.Taxes on annual incomes exceeding one million US dollars are up to 39.6%.He used the money to build infrastructure and social welfare guarantees, but he also created a “zero yuan purchase” not only because of the lack of results.This has led to the middle class and rich people in Silicon Valley becoming targeted targets, with complaints and suffering.
Therefore, although Silicon Valley tends toward the Democratic Party on social and cultural issues and supports freedom, diversity and social progress, it still shows a conservative and pragmatic side when facing its own economic interests to protect its own growth and competitiveness.
Shaun Maguire, a partner at Sequoia who was once a member of the Trump opposition and now transformed into an active supporter, said, “The public has been guided to believe that Trump is Hitler, but in fact he is Churchill.”
The shift in positions of those around you made AngelList founder Babak Nivi exclaim, “Today is probably the biggest change in American political views since 9/11.”
Of course, there are many people who think that this is all performance.Some netizens ruthlessly expose Maguire:
“Silicon Valley technologists are the least popular people on the planet. They are most like flocks and will say and do anything currently popular. It’s ridiculous that he deleted all (opposition) Trump’s push by 2023arts.”
In a recent article in the Financial Times, it also pointed out that Silicon Valley’s mainstream attitude towards Trump has changed.At the end of this article, the author writes that when Trump is re-elected with Silicon Valley support, “by then, many American business leaders, Republicans and Democrats will look back at Biden’s administration with a hint of regret.”
