Silicon Valley Top Players Gradually Opening Up to Trump After Past Criticism

Some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley that include Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos among others, have gradually started to warm up to the US president elect Donald Trump following past feuds between them.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — For almost a full year, the tech industry in the United States have launched a campaign against Trump and criticized him on many of his public remarks, especially with those related to the ban on immigrants, building the wall and his opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) which is heavily supported by the tech firms.

"Failure to pass this agreement will not only disadvantage American companies and the Americans who work for those companies, it will hamper the ability to negotiate new agreements, or even improve existing ones," leaders of 13 US tech companies wrote to lawmakers in September to ratify the TPP, as cited by law360 website.

TRUMP VS ZUCKERBERG

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg who has been one of the leading tech executives to call for a more open immigration policy, has been targeted by Trump who pointed out that Zuckerberg is looking to make more H-1B visas available to tech employers so they could hire foreign workers at lower wages than US workers.

"This will improve the number of black, Hispanic and female workers in Silicon Valley who have been passed over in favor of the H-1B program. Mark Zuckerberg's personal Senator, Marco Rubio, has a bill to triple H-1Bs that would decimate women and minorities," Trump wrote in his immigration plan, as cited by the CNN.

Zuckerberg on the other had had previously criticized Trump's famous wall by saying "I hear fearful voices talking about building walls," however, in a recent post on Wednesday night, Zuckerberg changed that outlook by saying that he is "feeling hopeful" while sharing a picture with his daughter Max watching the elections returns, and highlighted that the work ahead to create a better world for children is bigger than any presidency.

TRUMP VS BEZOS

Trump and Amazon CEO Jack Bezos have gone at it on social media in the past as well, and that was somewhat expected since the Washington Post, a newspaper owned by Bezos, has been fiercely lashing out on the then-Republican presidential candidate.

After all it was the Washington Post who released the infamous lewd video of Trump that dates back to 2005 in which he bragged about making a move on a married woman.

Trump accused Amazon of trying to use the newspaper as a scam to avoid paying taxes.

"If @Amazon ever had to pay fair taxes, its stock would crash and it would crumble like a paper bag. The @WashingtonPost scam is saving it!," Trump tweeted.

Bezos replied by launching a humorous hashtag #SendDonaldToSpace, and pointed out that he has a rocket company so the "capability is there", he also said that Trump "erodes democracy", according to the Guardian

However after Trump won the US presidential race, Bezos seemed to have started making a u-turn.

"Congratulations to @realDonaldTrump. I for one give him my most open mind and wish him great success in his service to the country," Bezos tweeted.

FINDING COMMON GROUND

However, despite the previous tensions, there could be big room for reaching a common ground between them. A Trump administration is expected to be pro-businesses, and he presented many ideas during his campaign which could be welcomed by the tech companies and entrepreneurs in general, which include lowering taxes and removing of regulatory reforms that hinder the development of businesses.

However only the future will reveal how the relation between Trump and Silicon Valley will evolve.

Trump won the 2016 US presidential election with 290 electoral votes, while his rival Hillary Clinton received 232 votes despite winning the popular vote by a margin of over 200,000, according to CNN. The inauguration is due on January 20.