How CEOs are trying to be like Musk and curry favor with Trump
CNN
When Spotify CEO Daniel Ek spoke by phone with Donald Trump, he came prepared.
When Spotify CEO Daniel Ek spoke by phone with Donald Trump, he came prepared. Ek shared statistics with the president-elect about how well his pre-election podcast interview with Joe Rogan performed on the streaming platform, a source familiar with the discussion told CNN – a subtle way to stroke Trump’s ego during their introductory call. Ek is one of at least 10 CEOs who’ve spoken with Trump or trekked down to Mar-a-Lago to meet with him in person since the election – often bringing along a $1 million check for his inauguration. The C-suite parade is one of the spoils of Trump’s November victory, and it reflects many chief executives’ desires to get a seat at the table with a president-elect who has power to push policies that can significantly affect their bottom lines. The strongest example of that power – and the influence business leaders can have to shape it – was on display this week when Elon Musk led the charge to tank a government funding deal, plunging Congress into a last-minute scramble that only narrowly averted a shutdown. Trump’s election vaulted Musk to the upper echelons of US political power. After purchasing Twitter in 2022, the SpaceX and Tesla CEO endorsed Trump this year and spent more than $260 million to help elect him. The world’s richest man is now part of Trump’s inner circle for key decisions and has been appointed, along with Vivek Ramaswamy, to lead a newly created Department of Government Efficiency. The CEOs courting Trump don’t necessarily have the same megaphone as Musk, who used his X platform to threaten GOP lawmakers on the spending deal earlier this week, but Trump’s meetings equate to a who’s who of blue-chip tech executives, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Alphabet Inc. co-founder Sergey Brin, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
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