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Where Were Big Tech’s CEOs on Tariffs?


Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg, and other tech leaders refrained from making public statements while their companies collectively lost trillions. Their silence was both deafening and strategic.

Niki Christoff, a Washington, DC, political strategist and former aide to Senator John McCain during his 2008 presidential campaign, says most of the strategizing around trade rules—and conversations with Trump’s staff—are happening through back channels right now. The kind of exemptions that would benefit Nvidia, such as more lenient policies on semiconductor imports for GPUs, differ from what Apple might be angling for, considering the company’s supply chain complexity and its reliance on China. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that he doesn’t care about the health of the average citizen’s retirement account, considering how ruthlessly he’s championing the firing of federal employees and the dismantling of government agencies.

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