By Jack Nicas and Rolfe Winkler
President-elect Donald Trump struck a conciliatory tone at a
much-anticipated meeting with some of his most prominent opponents
Wednesday, offering to work with Silicon Valley executives to
foster innovation and support fairer trade deals.
Part public spectacle, part private discussion, the 90-minute
meeting in Trump Tower in New York marked the first time Mr. Trump
met leaders of some of the nation's most valuable companies, most
of whom had supported Hillary Clinton during the campaign, and
several of whom were the targets of criticism from Mr. Trump.
"I'm here to help you folks do well," Mr. Trump told 13 tech
executives, seated with about a dozen Trump team and family members
around a large rectangular table.
The group discussed job creation, China, tax cuts, repatriating
foreign assets, education, infrastructure, and eliminating rules
that prevent U.S. firms from doing business abroad, according to a
release from Mr. Trump's transition team. The group might meet as
often as quarterly, the release said.
Amazon.com Inc. Chief Executive Jeff Bezos, who was criticized
by Mr. Trump during the campaign, said the meeting was productive.
"I shared the view that the administration should make innovation
one of its key pillars, which would create a huge number of jobs
across the whole country, in all sectors, not just tech --
agriculture, infrastructure, manufacturing -- everywhere."
That account also showed how much has changed since the
election. During the campaign, Mr. Trump accused Mr. Bezos of
buying the Washington Post to influence politics. "If I become
president, oh do they have problems, " he said. Mr. Bezos later
said Mr. Trump's behavior "erodes democracy around the edges."
Mr. Trump's commerce secretary-designate, billionaire investor
Wilbur Ross, who also attended the meeting, told reporters the
summit was "constructive" and that "both the tech guys and the
administration got to know each other a lot better."
The meeting also highlighted Mr. Thiel's ascendancy, who as one
of the president-elect's trusted advisers, is at the axis of the
political power shift in Silicon Valley. Mr. Trump praised Mr.
Thiel at the start of the meeting, "He's ahead of the curve, and I
want to thank you, man."
Mr. Trump also said Mr. Thiel helped orchestrate the event, even
personally nixing the inclusion of many companies that called
wanting to attend. "And these are monster companies," he said.
Instead, the summit attracted the biggest tech giants' top
executives, who ignored shouted questions from the throng of
reporters at Trump Tower.
Few in Silicon Valley supported Mr. Trump during the campaign,
and he has hinted at policies that worry many big tech firms, such
as trade restrictions, stricter immigration policy and tougher
antitrust enforcement.
On Wednesday, the two sides sought areas of cooperation.
"We want you to keep going with the incredible innovation.
There's nobody like you in the world...Anything we can do to help
this go along, we're going to be there for you," Mr. Trump told the
tech executives, according to a video of the start of the meeting.
"You call my people, you call me. It doesn't make any difference.
We have no formal chain of command around here."
During a brief round of introductions, Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook
said he looked forward to talking with Mr. Trump "about the things
that we can do to help you achieve some things you want."
Facebook Inc. Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said she
was "excited to talk about jobs." Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk said he
was "really excited about expanding our manufacturing footprint in
the U.S."
The tech executives at the meeting also included the CEO of
Google parent Alphabet Inc., Larry Page, and its chairman, Eric
Schmidt, as well as the CEO of Microsoft Corp., Satya Nadella, and
the company's president, Brad Smith. The CEOs of Intel Corp.,
International Business Machines Corp., Oracle Corp., Cisco Systems
Inc. and Palantir Technologies Inc. also attended.
Another dozen people joined from Mr. Trump's team, including Mr.
Ross; Vice President-elect Mike Pence; billionaire investor and
Trump adviser Peter Thiel; incoming White House chief of staff
Reince Priebus; Trump adviser Steve Bannon; and Mr. Trump's three
adult children and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Tech lobbyists, lawyers and analysts say Silicon Valley's
principal goal under the Trump administration is preserving the
status quo. The past eight years under President Barack Obama have
been an era of tremendous growth and record profits for the tech
industry, aided by favorable federal policies, such as free trade,
relatively weak antitrust enforcement and net neutrality, a policy
that requires internet providers to treat all web traffic
equally.
In remarks at the start of the meeting, Mr. Trump said he would
"do fair trade deals" and said he would "make it a lot easier for
you to trade across borders because there are a lot of
restrictions, a lot of problems." He added, "If you have any ideas
on that, that would be great." Mr. Trump has been a persistent
critic of past trade deals, including the pending Trans Pacific
Partnership.
Most of the companies represented at the meeting declined to
comment on the details. A Cisco spokeswoman said the meeting "was
very informative and productive, and President-elect Trump and his
team were extremely engaged."
After Wednesday's meeting, Mr. Cook of Apple and Mr. Musk of
Tesla stayed at Trump Tower to meet privately with Mr. Trump.
Separately on Wednesday, the Trump transition team said it added
Mr. Musk and Uber Technologies Inc. CEO Travis Kalanick to a
separate group that will advise the president-elect on business and
economic policy. The President's Strategic and Policy Forum
initially included only one tech executive, Ginni Rometty of IBM.
The transition team also added PepsiCo Inc. chief Indra Nooyi to
the group.
--Ryan Knutson, Laura Stevens and
Michael C. Bender
contributed to this article.
Write to Jack Nicas at jack.nicas@wsj.com and Rolfe Winkler at
rolfe.winkler@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 14, 2016 21:53 ET (02:53 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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