From Big Tech To The Media, The Rush To Kiss Trump’s Ring Is On

Donald Trump is undergoing quite the fêting ahead of his second term — and it’s a whole lot cozier than his descent into Washington eight years ago.

Tech titans are pouring millions of dollars into his inauguration and parading through West Palm Beach for meetings with the president-elect. Foreign leaders are seeking to curry his favor through phone calls and photo-ops. Liberal newscasters are rushing to Mar-a-Lago to mend fences with the man who painted them as “enemies of the people.” Time Magazine just named him “Person of the Year” — and dozens of business executives came out to watch him ring the New York Stock Exchange bell to celebrate.

“They realize Donald Trump is the Colossus at Rhodes right now. He's the game,” said former Trump campaign adviser David Urban “He’s going to get a lot accomplished and they don’t want to miss the boat.”

Meanwhile, Trump just hit his highest net favorability rating since April 2017 in a new Morning Consult survey. Polling also shows a majority of Americans approve of how he is handling his transition and believe he’ll do a good job when he returns to the White House next month. And surveys show Americans are broadly feeling warmer about Trump now than they did after the last two elections.

“When you look at how Donald Trump, whether it was when he was at Notre Dame in France — you saw how he was embraced by all the world leaders — or at the Army-Navy football game,” said Jim McLaughlin, a Trump campaign pollster. “There’s a new sheriff in town, and I think the American people like what they’re seeing.”

The fulsome embrace of Trump in recent weeks is a scene that would’ve seemed unimaginable four years ago. But it’s been clear for some time that the past isn’t a prologue for Trump’s second coming — a difference in approach across the political spectrum driven by his popular-vote win and battleground-state sweep. And it’s one that’s already playing out on Capitol Hill, as Republican lawmakers rush to nail down a strategy for passing Trump’s sweeping policy agenda and ramming through his Cabinet picks.

“This is the difference between a shocking victory in 2016 and a commanding victory in 2024,” said Matthew Bartlett, a GOP strategist and appointee under Trump’s first administration. 

It’s a dynamic Trump himself has noticed, telling reporters during his Palm Beach press conference today that “this term, everybody wants to be my friend.”

“The first term, everybody was fighting me,” Trump said, adding later: “This one is much less hostile, it’s really the opposite of hostile.”

He plans to meet with more world leaders this week. And of business and tech leaders, he said the “rest are coming.” He mentioned his meetings with the CEOs of Apple, Meta and Google and said Amazon’s Jeff Bezos will be coming to Mar-a-Lago this week.

Even ahead of his return to the White House, Trump has been pushing his agenda and finding time for negotiations — and photo-ops — with world leaders. He threatened tariffs on Canada and Mexico, prompting a call from Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and a visit from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. And earlier this month, at the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral, he was treated like a sitting president, with a prime seat next to French President Emmanuel Macron.

Republicans say it’s helped that lame-duck President Joe Biden has largely disappeared from the global stage and from media headlines — aside from his decision to pardon his son Hunter last month. When Trump was in Paris, first lady Jill Biden attended in her husband’s place.

“I think there is a void with Biden, especially with world leaders. Trump is already kind of filling that vacuum,” said Tricia McLaughlin, a GOP strategist and former senior adviser for Vivek Ramaswamy's 2024 bid.

Where the dynamic is perhaps most apparent is the tech sphere. Starting last week, at least four tech CEOs or their companies have announced giant checks to Trump’s inauguration fund. So far, Amazon, Meta, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Perplexity say they’ll donate $1 million each. And it’s not just cash: Google’s Sundar Pichai reportedly visited Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate on Thursday and Trump said he had dinner with Apple CEO Tim Cook, although it’s not publicly known whether Google or Apple have made donations to Trump’s inaugural campaign (Google declined to comment and Apple didn’t respond to a request for comment.).

The four tech companies announcing donations within two days of each other is likely a “safety in numbers” strategy, said Adam Kovacevich, CEO at the tech lobbying group Chamber of Progress and a former Google policy executive. He said their contribution club raised the risk for companies sitting out. “I don’t think donating to the inaugural fund achieves very much — but not contributing might get noticed.”

In the past, tech inaugural contributions have been smaller and more subtle. For Biden’s inauguration, Google donated $337,500, Microsoft gave $500,000 and Amazon donated nearly $277,000, with an additional $50,000 for software and web-hosting services, according to the Federal Elections Commission. Now, Altman, Amazon, Meta and Perplexity are handing out big checks and doing so in a headline-grabbing way. “The companies have specifically chosen a more public route,” said Nu Wexler, a partner at Four Corners Public Affairs who previously worked at Google, Facebook (renamed Meta) and Twitter (now X).

Wexler said tech execs are learning the one constant when dealing with Trump: the importance of being in the room when a decision is made — and hopefully being the last one he spoke to before making it.

“They’ve also learned that in order to get in the room,” he said, “you have to write a check."

Meridith McGraw and Mohar Chatterjee contributed to this report.

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