Silicon Valley Warms to Trump After a Chilly Start
Michael Kratsios, the White House’s deputy chief technology officer, said in an interview
that while Mr. Trump and Silicon Valley had their differences, “in places where we do see eye to eye, I think we’re achieving extraordinary success.”
Dean Garfield, head of the Information Technology Industry Council, a 102-year-old advocacy group
that represents the biggest tech firms, said his members walked a tightrope, supporting and opposing the president on different issues.
On the campaign trail in 2016, Mr. Trump was so critical of tech companies
that Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s chief executive, once joked he might send Mr. Trump to space in a rocket.
Many tech companies lobbied for corporate tax reform for years before Mr. Trump signed the new tax bill.
After Apple took advantage of the new tax law in January to bring back most of the $252 billion cash hoard
that it had parked overseas, the company said it would make a $350 billion “contribution to the U. S. economy” over the next five years.
But Apple also said it planned to hire 20,000 new workers, invest in new data centers
and another domestic campus, and increase a fund for innovative American manufacturers to $5 billion from $1 billion.
Mr. Shapiro said that he had voted for Hillary Clinton, Mr. Trump’s opponent, in 2016, but
that he and many tech executives had come around on Mr. Trump.