• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
TechA Boom With A View

Why Trump Could (Cringe) Be Good For Silicon Valley

By
Erin Griffith
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Erin Griffith
Down Arrow Button Icon
December 20, 2016, 10:00 AM ET
Illustration by Michael George Haddad for Fortune

đŸ’„A Boom with a ViewđŸ’„ is a column about startups and the technology industry, written by Erin Griffith. Find them all here: fortune.com/boom.

“F*CK TRUMP.” That was the message Charles River Ventures, a Boston-based venture capital firm, blasted at anyone who visited its website this fall. A page railed against Donald Trump’s anti-immigration stance: “If you are for building walls and stopping change, stay away. Bigots need not apply.”

It was a potent sentiment shared throughout the tech industry and expressed equally on Twitter, in Medium blog posts, on conference stages, and in campaign donations. One hundred forty-five tech leaders signed an open letter opposing Trump. Amazon (AMZN) CEO and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos declared that Trump is eroding the U.S. democracy. Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) CEO Meg Whitman, a Republican, donated to Hillary Clinton and called Trump a “dishonest demagogue.” No sector of business was more vocal in its opposition.

I say “was” because those sentiments are fading. CRV’s homepage has returned to normal. Some venture investors admitted to me that they deleted their anti-Trump tweets. Whitman announced that “it is the obligation of every citizen to support our President.” And in December, a cabal of Silicon Valley’s top leaders—Bezos among them—trudged to Trump Tower to glad-hand the President-elect.

The reversal has not gone unnoticed. Writer Paul Carr called it Silicon Valley’s “Come to Satan” moment. Venture capitalist Chris Sacca shamed the tech leaders for “legitimizing fascism.” Worker bees inside tech companies banded together in opposition, pledging to resist Trump’s proposal to register Muslims in the U.S.

The dirty secret is that a President Trump will be very good for certain power players in Silicon Valley. Set aside morality—in Trump’s America, fiduciary duty comes first. Despite tough campaign talk about consolidation, Trump is not expected to oppose monopolistic behavior. Good news if you’re Amazon, Alphabet (GOOGL), or Facebook (FB).

Trump may also benefit startups. A Republican-controlled Congress could end gridlock, creating opportunities to reform laws that are slowing down startups, says Bradley Tusk, CEO of Tusk Holdings, a political consultancy and venture firm known for advising Uber. Areas of interest include contract-worker rights, peer-to-peer lending laws, online gambling restrictions, and scrutiny toward for-profit education.

An extremely business-friendly administration will only help. Elaine Chao, Trump’s nominee for Transportation secretary, has signaled a friendliness to the so-called gig economy that includes Uber and Lyft’s fleets of part-time drivers. And while the Securities and Exchange Commission has recently started paying closer attention to large private startups, most observers don’t expect that to be a focus under Trump.

The prospect of a Trump-size cut to corporate taxes could even send the public markets soaring—just the thing to jump-start a string of long-overdue tech IPOs.

It could be huge. Trust me.

A version of this article appears in the January 1, 2017 issue of Fortune with the headline “In Trump Tech (Must) Trust.”

About the Author
By Erin Griffith
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Success
  • Tech
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Environment
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Health
  • Retail
  • Lifestyle
  • Politics
  • Newsletters
  • Magazine
  • Features
  • Commentary
  • Mpw
  • CEO Initiative
  • Conferences
  • Personal Finance
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map

© 2025 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.


Most Popular

placeholder alt text
Real Estate
Mark Zuckerberg gifted noise-canceling headphones to his Palo Alto neighbors because of the nonstop construction around his 11 homes
By Dave SmithDecember 25, 2025
10 hours ago
placeholder alt text
Personal Finance
Trump turns government into giant debt collector with threat to garnish wages on millions of Americans in default on student loans
By Annie Ma and The Associated PressDecember 24, 2025
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Success
Chinese billionaire who has fathered more than 100 children hopes to have dozens of U.S.-born boys to one day take over his business
By Emma BurleighDecember 25, 2025
12 hours ago
placeholder alt text
Retail
Trump just declared Christmas Eve a national holiday. Here’s what’s open and closed
By Dave SmithDecember 24, 2025
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Success
Billionaire philanthropy's growing divide: Mark Zuckerberg stops funding immigration reform as MacKenzie Scott doubles down on DEI
By Ashley LutzDecember 22, 2025
3 days ago
placeholder alt text
Success
Meet the millennial father of six who rebuilt his life through the trades—and questions America's obsession with college
By Eva RoytburgDecember 24, 2025
1 day ago

Latest in Tech

Kiara Nirghin, the co-founder and CTO of the applied AI lab Chima
AIBrainstorm AI
Gen Z founder on ‘AI anxiety’ and being pigeonholed as generation shortcut: that’s the ‘biggest misconception’
By Nick LichtenbergDecember 25, 2025
10 hours ago
Panos Panay, Senior Vice President, Devices and Services, Amazon
AIBrainstorm AI
Amazon’s Alexa chief predicts an end to doom scrolling: the next generation is ‘going to just think differently’
By Nick LichtenbergDecember 25, 2025
11 hours ago
Prakhar Mehrotra smiles as he sits in a yellow chair onstage with "Fortune" on the background screen.
AIFintech
The real AI revolution is going from the information era to the ‘intelligence era,’ Paypal senior VP says. That means your focus should be tokens
By Sasha RogelbergDecember 25, 2025
13 hours ago
InvestingFinance
Goldman Sachs expects layoffs to keep rising—and says investors are punishing the stocks of companies that slash staff
By Lee CliffordDecember 25, 2025
14 hours ago
AIBrainstorm AI
Cursor CEO warns vibe coding builds ‘shaky foundations’ and eventually ‘things start to crumble’
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezDecember 25, 2025
15 hours ago
Big TechTesla
Tesla faces NHTSA probe over Model 3 emergency door handles
By Dana Hull and BloombergDecember 24, 2025
1 day ago