From 'useful idiots' to the White House: How Silicon Valley learned to play politics
The grand bargain with Trump's MAGA movement, which gave Elon Musk the keys to American government, represents the tech industry coming of political age. Will it last?
One of the most head-spinning vibe shifts in business and politics over the past couple of years has been the realignment of the tech industry sharply to the right.
Elon Musk in the White House running a conservative corporate restructure via the Department of Government Efficiency. Venture capitalists betting the house on Donald Trump. Mark Zuckerberg adding UFC boss Dana White to the Meta board, ditching content moderation and going bro mode on Joe Rogan. Jeff Bezos deciding to turn The Washington Post into The Wall Street Journal.
It’s a shift, no doubt, and a very visible one — especially for those who have pictured the tech industry as branded hoodies, laptops, ping pong tables and breezy social liberalism. But the foundations for the change have been there for a very long time, and there are already stress fractures emerging.
I’m writing this as our debut missive for Capital Brief’s new Ideas section, where I hope we’ll be able to deeply explore some of the dynamics that are driving conversations across our core coverage areas of tech, finance, politics and the law.
