In a stunning proclamation, former Trump strategist Steve Bannon has declared that the attendance of major tech CEOs at Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration represents their “official surrender” to the reelected commander-in-chief. Speaking to ABC News, Bannon drew a provocative comparison to the Japanese surrender to Allied forces at the end of World War II.
“I view this as September of 1945, the Missouri, and you have the [Japanese] imperial high command, and he’s like Douglas MacArthur,” Bannon stated, referencing the formal ceremony aboard the USS Missouri battleship where Japan signed the instruments of surrender. “That is an official surrender, OK, and I think it’s powerful.”
The tech luminaries slated to attend the inauguration, whom Bannon dubbed “supplicants,” include Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple’s Tim Cook, Elon Musk, and other Silicon Valley elites. Many of these figures and their companies had previously been at odds with Trump, particularly after banning him from social media platforms in the wake of the January 6th Capitol riots.
Zuckerberg Visit Opens the “Floodgates”
According to Bannon, the turning point came when Mark Zuckerberg personally visited Trump and announced his intention to attend the inauguration. This overture, from the man who had overseen Trump’s suspension from Facebook and Instagram, allegedly triggered a rush of other tech titans eager to make amends with the incoming administration.
“The floodgates opened up and they were all there trying to be supplicants,” Bannon recounted. “I look at this, and I think most people in our movement look at this, as President Trump broke the oligarchs. He broke them and they surrendered.”
Zuckerberg, for his part, expressed gratitude for the opportunity to meet with Trump’s team about the “incoming administration” after his private dinner with the President. But Bannon sees a more dramatic capitulation at play.
Facebook Drops Factchecking as Olive Branch
In what some view as a peace offering to Trump, Zuckerberg recently announced that Facebook and Instagram would be abandoning their factchecking services implemented in the wake of the 2016 election. Instead, the platforms will rely on community-driven corrections in an effort to “restore free expression.”
Critics like President Biden have slammed the decision as “shameful,” while Zuckerberg himself has accused the outgoing administration of inappropriately pressuring Facebook to censor posts, particularly related to COVID-19 vaccines. But for Bannon and Trump’s supporters, it’s being seen as a long-overdue correction and acknowledgement of Silicon Valley overreach.
Tech Titans Fill Trump’s Coffers
Beyond the symbolic import of attending the inauguration, the tech elite have also reportedly donated generously to Trump’s inaugural fund. Trump himself boasted of the outreach from former adversaries, declaring “Jeff Bezos came. Bill Gates came. Mark Zuckerberg came. Many of them came numerous times. The bankers have all come. Everybody is coming.”
For Bannon, this represents the ultimate victory over an “oligarchy” that had once stood against Trumpism. With a laugh, he claimed that the tech giants told Trump “Oh, we’ll take off any constraints, no more checkings, everything” in exchange for a truce.
Biden Sees “Oligarchy Taking Shape”
Outgoing President Biden, however, has rung alarm bells about the growing concentration of wealth and power in the tech sphere, recently warning of an “oligarchy taking shape” that “literally threatens our entire democracy.” But some progressive critics argue Biden is an imperfect messenger after decades of cultivating ties with big-money donors himself.
“It’s cowardly that after representing the oligarchs for 50 years in office, he calls out this threat to our nation with just days left in his presidency,” said former Bernie Sanders campaign co-chair Nina Turner. “Biden enabled, benefited from and emboldened the system that threatens us all.”
As Trump’s tech-studded inauguration approaches, the nation waits to see whether this budding alliance will translate into policies favorable to Silicon Valley giants, or if the anti-establishment ethos that drove Trump’s first term will resurface. For Bannon, at least, the matter seems settled – the once-mighty oligarchs have bent the knee, ushering in a new era of the Trump presidency unrestrained by the power of Big Tech.
