Kari Lake said Friday on Newsmax that Big Tech leaders who once opposed President Donald Trump are now showing deference. She called their presence at a White House dinner a striking reversal.
Trump and first lady Melania hosted more than two dozen Silicon Valley leaders at the White House on Thursday evening, with executives from Meta, Microsoft, Apple, Google, and OpenAI praising his pro-business stance.
Lake, senior adviser for the U.S. Agency for Global Media, told "Rob Schmitt Tonight" that the gathering revealed former adversaries now showing respect.
"Well, you can look at it one of two ways," Lake said when asked about the dinner.
"Look, we can say some of the people there, you know, we look at and view as the scum of the earth: [Mark] Zuckerberg, what he did in that election and taking away President Trump's voice on Facebook, and Bill Gates. I mean, we could go all day about all the crazy things he's been involved in. But these guys are all former enemies where they treated Trump like an enemy. And now they're sitting there capitulating, bending the knee to Trump."
Meta founder Zuckerberg, Microsoft co-founder Gates, Apple CEO Tim Cook, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Google executives Sundar Pichai and Sergey Brin were among those attending the dinner.
During the event, Altman thanked Trump for his policies. "Thank you for being such a pro-business, pro-innovation president. It's a very refreshing change," Altman said. "We're very excited to see what you are doing to make all of our companies and our entire country so successful."
Lake said the scene underscored Trump's position on top. "I laughed when I saw it. Here he is, the winner, the victor, and all of his former enemies are gathered around," she said.
She added that having Big Tech leaders align with Trump should ease tensions.
"These guys are pretty powerful. They're there to bend the knee, and do we really want them still aiming, you know, aiming toward you and trying to bring you down? I don't think I want to have Google continuing to try to bring Trump down. I don't want Mark Zuckerberg to try to bring Trump down for four more years," Lake said.
"I'd much rather see Trump bring people together. He was sitting there with a smile on his face, and they were the ones who had to crawl back in and capitulate to the victor."
The dinner also came as tech leaders continue to lobby for limited government intervention in artificial intelligence, even as Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson remains a sharp critic of the industry.
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Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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