Hello, this is Elon: Musk joins Google CEO Pichai’s call with Trump
In yet another sign that Elon Musk wields enormous influence over Donald Trump, the world’s richest individual joined Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s call with the US President-elect.
Donald Trump and Elon Musk. By Getty Images
In yet another sign that Elon Musk wields enormous influence over Donald Trump, the world’s richest individual joined Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s call with the US President-elect.
Even before the all-decisive Election Night on November 5th, top executives from some of America’s largest tech companies had reached out to Trump – just in case.
Trump himself revealed that he spoke with Apple CEO Tim Cook about the company’s legal challenges in Europe. He also said that Pichai called to “express admiration,” and CNN reported that Amazon CEO Andy Jassy chatted to Trump as well.
Well, that was before. Now, as The Information has it, when Pichai called Trump to congratulate Trump on winning the presidential election over Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, a guest was on the line.
The Information’s sources say that Musk, the CEO of Tesla, xAI, SpaceX, and other companies, listened in as Pichai spoke with Trump.
In a way, that’s not exactly surprising. These days, Musk – who has been appointed by Trump to co-lead a new commission called “Department of Government Efficiency” – rarely leaves the President-elect’s side.
Musk – who also owns the increasingly right-wing social media platform X – is a near-constant presence at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s home in Florida, and has been involved in many sensitive conversations.
He even briefly joined a phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and listened in when Trump spoke with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
But this is the first known example of Musk joining a conversation between Trump and a big tech CEO. Quite obviously, the revelation raises eyebrows about the billionaire’s role in shaping tech policy under the next administration.
Not that Musk has warm feelings for Google. Just like Trump, he’s been vocal about alleged biases in Google’s search results, suggesting that searches about Trump were surfacing news about Harris instead.
undefined Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 29, 2024
Musk’s companies also directly compete with Google in fields like artificial intelligence, self-driving cars, and web platforms (X vs. YouTube).
Earlier this year, Trump – who has a long history of accusing major tech firms of being biased against him – said on his platform Truth Social: “Google is a crooked, election interference machine. Totally illegal, they will pay a big price for what they are doing!”