Apple, Amazon, Google, Meta and others learned during the last Trump administration to expect the unexpected when it came to Washington scrutiny and support.
At a meeting with Google’s Larry Page, Apple’s Tim Cook and other tech leaders in 2016, President-elect Donald J. Trump told the gathering, “I’m here to help you folks do well.”
Instead, Mr. Trump’s treatment of the tech industry during his first term was unpredictable and at times lashing.
His regulators filed antitrust charges against Meta and Google and launched investigations into Apple and Amazon. He accused Meta and Twitter of censorship, resulting in Republican-led congressional hearings grilling tech executives. He moved to ban TikTok and blasted Amazon for shirking its tax obligations.
Now with Mr. Trump’s election victory on Tuesday, tech executives face the prospect of another four years of similar uncertainty. The president-elect has promised to put the tech billionaire Elon Musk in a newly created position to bring efficiencies to the government and vowed to deregulate industry. He has indicated that the government’s efforts to break up Google for a monopoly in search may go too far, even though the investigation into the company started in his term. He has flip-flopped on the fate of TikTok, which again faces a U.S. ban. And he has promised more tariffs, which could affect chipmakers and smartphone manufacturers.
The stakes are high. American tech companies — some of the most valuable in the world — are central to how people shop, communicate and consume information online. The industry pours billions of dollars into new and existing technologies, including most recently artificial intelligence. The industry is also in the middle of a geopolitical battle with China and other nations over technological supremacy.
“He’s been incredibly unpredictable on tech and seems prone to changing positions on any topic,” said Scott Babwah Brennen, director of the Center on Technology Policy at New York University.