Tech leaders are turning on Trump and Musk: 'Everyone is annoyed'
Summary
Tech leaders who once backed Trump are fed up as his second term descends into chaos.
Venture capitalists and startup founders complain about erratic policies and feel burned by crypto bro schemes like $Trump coin, which tanked after launch.
Appointing David Sacks as "crypto czar" only fueled suspicions of cronyism, while proposed defense budget cuts leave companies like Anduril and Palantir reeling.
Even billionaire allies like Jeff Bezos are souring as tariffs and economic uncertainty hit their bottom line. "Everyone is annoyed," says one disillusioned founder.
https://www.businessinsider.com/tech-leaders-souring-trump-musk-tariffs-crypto-bros-annoyed-2025-3Open linkView original on lemmy.world777
Comments129
“When tech people got involved in the government, they thought Trump was going to take more of a surgical approach and act less like a wrecking ball."
What about his first term, insurrection and campaign and everything about and around him suggested it’d be anything other than a wrecking ball approach???
Billionaires have done a lot these past few years toward outing themselves as being just as stupid as any other random dumbass.
They are. They just lack morals and empathy. They’re incapable of feeling shame for exploiting other humans.
They were also all extremely lucky at least once.
I think that's the key. We attribute to them special qualities because we like to think in terms of cause and effect. But they all seem to have just been there at the right time with the right people and the right thing.
They show us there is nothing special about them every time they try to do something new and miserably fail. Think the money Meta spent on VR, or the way Musk alienated users and advertisers on Twitter.
We are basically beholden to lottery winners.
Birth Lottery Sociopaths
2000s indie rock band, or dotcom billionaire?
Yeah well I’m not saying it’s entirely luck, but luck is certainly a significant factor in becoming a billionaire.
Right place, right time, right resources at said place and time etc.
They’re not super geniuses better than anyone else, they just had a lot fall their way, and had the work ethic/psychopathic tendencies to capitalise on it.
In about 2018, I think, a team of researchers put together a mathematical model of how markets work. What they found is that wealth just naturally accumulates to a few people. It's inherent to how markets work, and it's more or less at random; in their simulation runs, every person started out in an equal position.
It's all luck. It doesn't even take being in the right place at the right time, although that helps. Since us humans operate on narratives and just-world fallacies, it's really easy for us to construct a post hoc story about why a certain billionaire succeeded. But it's all luck.
(I remember that I read about this research in Scientific American, but I don't have the link handy.)
Here's that Scientific American article. I keep it in my bookmarks because it's one of the articles that easily disproves countless bullshit theories. Also an article my dumbass drumpf loving father refuses to read.
His first term was pretty milquetoast during his term, at least in the ways that these stakeholders cared about. Yeah, he mucked with some trade relationships but largely backed down except for China, and China is a thorn in their side too. The economy basically looked similar to most presidential terms for the last 30 years (except for George W Bush, who had very subpar economic results). Yeah he did some horrible stuff and some incompetent stuff, but economically, his term was just fine (except for 2020, which derailed everyone).
The 2020 election, January 6th, and Trump's continuing behavior in the wake of that, and the PJ2025 associates that swarmed around him should have been the sign that he was too dangerous to risk. However they could have still thought that Trump's behavior was more of a show for riling up a base, and his second term would still give them a chance to have him shuffle off to a golf course while the big boys got what they wanted like usual.
This term, there just are no winners, at least domestically, and lots of losers.
Naked greed has a way of making even the orangest turd seem to sparkle like gold.
Awww. Poor rich babies are annoyed. My heart pumps purple piss for them.
FAFO assholes.
I admire your commitment to the cause, but you really should get that checked out....
It's an old saying from back in the day (70s to 80s).
Check out The Wire for reference.
Awesome show. Can’t remember that line though.
Bunk said it to a crime lab tech.
And just found out it was also in Stephen King's The Dark Tower, book 4, which I read wayyyy back when.
Great; time for another rewatch.
Maybe this time FS won’t die.
My personal thought was "Aww, poor tech-bro capitalists are learning what the actual, obscene fundamentals of their antisocial ideology have always been, and that they were in fact not high-IQ genius technocrats knowing better than anyone else how to run mankind".
But then I realised they most likely learned nothing and will claim that they, themselves, would never have been so stupid.
Cool, so now the tech bros will stand up to them in the house and file articles of…. Oh wait, they don’t actually have any power in the government and will be able to do nothing to get the orange fascist and his South African goblin out of the place where they are doing IRREPARABLE harm.
If we even GET a free and fair election in 26.
And that’s an if bigger than the entire Milky Way galaxy
Not really, either way the Broligarchs own the government. We might make them buy slightly less shitty politicians, but that doesn't count for much.
we will agree with them, when they start funding opposition to all GOP,a nd stop thier donations to them. if they think they can virtue signal and double-dip by funding both sides, they arnt really ready for a change.
My slim hope is that they start funding the opposition and current legislators to oust them. Things change radically when money is on the line.Sucks i have to pray to oligarchs but I don't have any other short term optionEdit: Fuck this mentality I need to find a better path.
They're mad because he's ruining their income, we're mad because he's ruining the country; we are not the same.
Fuck them.
There is no greater joy than when two of your enemies go to war against each other.
🤘
"You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else." -Winston Churchill
Allow several hundred years, population boom and bust crashes, and then there will be one brief shining moment where we too can have our own king Author
Ok techbros and billionaires, either Luigi him or stfu. You pieces of shit tanked America.
I had to laugh when I saw some dumbass posting some FB-level political magabrained copium about how gas prices are going down thanks to dumbass donvict.
And the amount of comments underneath it, thanking donvict for doing great things for America. The amount of absolute DELUSION out there, as well as the people that proudly slap that delusion up there on....checks notes....a site for building your network for your career for employers, co-workers, and potential clients/customers to see is mind-boggling.
I bet these same set of dumbasses will be all Pikachu-faced and talking about how they are being "censored" by Big Tech if they were to find out that people take a pass on hiring/doing business with a chucklefuck jagoff posting moronic political nonsense on a site for your career...they never seem to realize that free speech cuts both ways. They are free to express what idiots they are and others are free to disassociate with them because of it.
I've seen shit like that too. I'm convinced they are all bots since meta just gave up on stopping them.
I've said almost the exact thing no less than ten times in this thread, using way too many words.
🤘 Fuck yeah!
"Oh no. I did his bidding. He was supposed to hurt other people, but not me. Now I hate that guy. Feel sorry for me."
Things need to change, only because they’re negatively impacting me. If other people are affected, that’s on them.
If other people are affected, no they're not. They just need to be tough like me.
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to call in a favor for something that is affecting me.
It's like they learned nothing from the first time he was president.
But they really really didn't!
They all banked the first time he was president. It's all us regular people who got boned.
No, they learned plenty. Look up Peter thiel's bullshit. They thought they could profit from dissolving our country. I'm fucking loving this personally. I hope they actually cancel social security. It will burn the entirety of the "Republican" party (using quotation marks because they are furthest thing from, like the "Democratic Republic of....")
Let it all burn. This country voted for acceleration, so it deserves it!
"Venture capitalists and startup founders complain about erratic policies and feel burned by crypto bro schemes like $Trump coin, which tanked after launch. "
Lmao if you put money into TrumpCoin you deserve all your losses. Idiots.
I want the names of the people that are VCs and startup founders that were so fucking stupid as to "invest" in something like a memecoin.
Either you were/are in on the rugpull presidency or you aren't. That coin was pure bullshit and at best, it's just a way to launder money into donvict and his broligarchs pockets. If you aren't on the inside of that scheme, you are the mark.
Fuk all them assholes
Are you fucking serious?
The entire article reads like:
Bush:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHhrZgojY1Q
The spin I heard was that he started saying it and halfway through realized he was going to create a soundbite of him saying "shame on me" and instinctively knew it would be better to flub the line and "aww shucks" it than to give a soundbite of him shaming himself.
Yeah Bush had a lot of Boris Johnson energy.
Support a corrupt and utterly idiotic wannabe dictator.
Make that suprised Pikachu face when the guy you support turns out to be an idiot.
Lose money because of the idiot.
"Annoyed"
Oh fuck off.
Fuck this comment hits hard!
With people like Peter thiel running this god damned industry, who also bankrolled trump, I feel no sympathy!
Fuck em all! You got what you thought you wanted!
Well, there was an unforseeable outcome. Trump was so known for keeping salubrious company in the past.
"More business-friendly presidency" is WILD.
Nearly every presidency of the last century has been pro-business, anti-worker. Federal protections for workers are nearly non-existent. Federal minimum wage is a joke. Wealth inequality is hitting all-time records.
Oligarch ghouls are so high in their ivory tower they have now clue how ordinary families on the ground are struggling.
they just realized they are all scam artist, in clude the potus himself?
Well, that was a quick honeymoon, did they get thoroughly fucked at least?
They thought they paid their dues and Trump would leave them alone after some token bullshit and some "campaign donations" but Trump's senile ass is causing them issues and they're sour about it.
Not so fun when you’re the ones being pumped and dumped
All these unprincipled fucks naming their companies after things from LOTR belies their complete lack of understanding of Tolkien and his morality. He’d fucking hate them all.
Palantir is pretty spot-on. It spies on everyone, is a tool of evil, and once used you never know who's watching and influencing you.
To be fair looking into these dudes I think they know that and like it.
I'd go a step further and say Tolkien would (banned by Reddit) these fuckers.
Yup, they got what they supported. May not be what they wanted, but after seeing Jack royally fuck HBO, I'm convinced rich people are just stupid and born into wealth. I have witnessed not one single rich person earn fucking shit!
I mean there are a handful that created some kind of creative work that became wildly popular and their wealth is ultimately derived primarily from that creation that you could argue earned it. Like Notch or JK Rowling.
I agree with you, but you named the two of the shittiest people on earth.
You grossly underestimate just how shitty people can be. Which is wild given what's going on in gestures wildly.
Yet somehow both are still pieces of shit just like the others.
I mean there is a difference between "earned their money rather than being born into it" and "has all the correct politics".
Yeah. Can't argue with that logic. But of all the available examples to choose from, why choose those two?
Specifically to have that conversation - there is no connection whatsoever between "earned their money" and "has views I agree with" or even "has non-harmful views." At least Notch doesn't do worse than occasionally tweet what he thinks.
"Even our most soulless plutocrats are wondering if the EU replacing all its US based services might be a result of current leadership."
“A loose cannon eventually points your way.”
~me
Really shoulda anchord that thing down
That sounds like something a Communist, a woman or a DEI would say.
Welp, strait white male in his late 30s...guess I'm a commie
Who knew tech bros were still stuck on OS X 10.5…I figured they would use more modern operating systems
Oh woe is me! Let's clutch our pearls and feel so sorry for the incel tech lords and crypto bros that brought this maniac authoritarian regime into power because now they're annoyed by his policies. Won't someone please pray for their capital trusts, mansions, nepobabies, and yachts! How will they survive with billions in property and means to escape when the little people tire of their shit and burn it all down?
Sarcasm aside I yearn for the day all these FAFO morons get utterly put in their places. Y'all got to ride high on extorting the working class and immigrant labor while you rubbed it in our faces. Fuck all of you, your lies, your fake unearned success, and your fake patriotism. Fuck all Nazis but six. Save them for pallbearers and when they're done burying the dead feed them to the dogs.
Things are fucked up when private citizens criticize the government anonymously due to "fear of retribution".
But he’s a tech bro, he’s in the “in crowd.” This so called retribution might just mean he can’t hang out at their club house anymore.
The leopard ate my face. What the actual hell did they expect‽
Oh please. They love it. They are drooling at the idea of ushering in violence and fascism. They’ve been preparing for the last decade.
This is my take. Once their bottom line starts fluctuating, they'll simply find a new loophole to exploit so money keeps flowing, while slightly adjusting their fleet of yachts to a safer distance.
There's no allegiance to anything. US is just the most convenient place to generate wealth right now.
Maybe, maybe not. This has turned out differently before. Here's a tidbit from Homage to Catalonia (emphasis added):
It'll come down on if they like authoritarian control better than they like money. They're getting burned on the money part, and there's no reason to think Trump's policies will make it any better in the long run.
But don't count on them either way. They'll still enact policies that are good for billionaires, not us.
People only like authoritarian when they get to be the authority. So these folks that are getting financially screwed also have no reason to believe they would get power in exchange.
It's basically seeming like a bum deal all around.
They all attend the same parties and go to all the same social gatherings. That is pretty much all you need to know.
They're jangling their keys in front of the Democrats now to:
I guess maybe they should not have voted for him and paid him millions?
Yes, let us not forget that! I haven't.
The last half of that sentence isn't much better either. My heart goes out to the poor weapons manufacturers with cut budgets.
Annoyed? ANNOYED? OH POOR BABIES.
Must be nice to be "annoyed" by what is going on right now.
Why does anyone think trump and musk will make things better for them? This administration only serve themselves at the expense of what's left of the future of America.
You know that Carlin joke people like to reference that says to imagine how dumb the average person is and that half the people are dumber? Well apply that again and take the bottom half of the bottom half. Then sprinkle some of our anti-intellectual, anti-science, anti-education, proud avarice and ignorance culture on top.
I Miss that man.
This whole article is "leapard at my face!" material
WTF is up with these defense companies named after LOTR items?!
You can blame Peter Thiel for that one
You ever wonder if it would be Peter Tiel if he was straight?
Not really. Nerds are nerds, regardless of sexual orientation.
To me the weird part is that one of LOTR's main themes is that power corrupts.
JRR Tolkien fought in the trenches in WW1. Its been said his inspiration for some of his depictions of mordor are from the trenches.
Assuming many of the early defense companies may have been big tolkien fans
This is my theory. I have no proof fyi
actually its mostly THIEL, hes obssesed with spying: Palintr and ANDURIL is his creation.
I wonder how many of them voted for qon assholes like donvict for the tax cuts and to combat "DEI" at least a little bit (or at least dunk on the 13 trans people in college sports nationwide or whatever the fuck) but they didn't want the monkey-flinging-shit level of batshit insanity that donvict has been doing...
I just want Luigi released.
And even if you showed me it, I wouldn't believe it. I heard his dad was from Uganda, so he's an illegal.
And reloaded
Don't bother blaming trans athletes. The culture war is only a means to an end. They couldn't give less of a fuck about sports.
That doesn't seem like a great office to have a holder who is soliciting bribes from foreign countries to affect national policy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Witkoff
If only there had been any warning signs in advance!
Seriously, these are our best and brightest rich people, they didn't see fucking cronyism coming from this guy???? Were they born in 2020? I seriously just can't imagine being this dense.
How the tech oligarchy chose to side with Felon Drink Bleach in the first place is unacceptable.
We will not forget.
You’d think the rich would be good at reading people but it seems the exact opposite is true.
Oh no, they just don't trust anyone who doesn't think like them. They count on being able to read other folks for being bastards but empathetic people are unpredictable in that they don't always choose what's beneficial. Hell sometimes they literally inconvenience themselves! Why would they do that? It makes no sense!? How can they dominate the markets if they're just....giving shit away for free?
Oh look the capitalists are learning again that funding a fascist only gets you so far and once they’re actually in they don’t need you anymore.
This is a fact of nature at this point.
Capital controls the government. Unless white house policy actually changes, this is a load of hopium.
Funny how it only bothers them when their wallet is affected....
Crypto bros are just upset that Trump has brought his toxic brand to their grift.
So do something then, other than just complaining about it.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
It's just too bad that they "won" this shit for all of us.
They thought he was going to go full deregulation like the first term, but instead he went full Nazi, but that's even disengenous, because the Nazi's had a plan, this is just oppositional fascism without reason.
probably not delivering on his promises, giving them unfettered access with AI.
No, he's delivering everything Peter thiel wanted. He is literally destroying the United(emphasis on that previous word) states.
Rich fucks don't like us being able to survive.
Good. When will he FINALLY piss enough people off? What will it take?
Sounds like that’s what he’s doing.
Will they do something about it once their "tech" is wiped out? Their wealthy dissolved? Can they do anything about it once they're wiped out? (or will they be like the rest of us - unable to overcome the sheer weight of counter-computation we fight against now?)
They way to a clean and prosperous future is in your reach but instead we all have to adapt and overcome the ignorant old few that want to read paper and tinker on diesel tanks for a few pretty accolades.
Democracy's greatest weakness is a paranoid old man afraid of change, in great number. Peace through technological wonder instead of undermining humanity.
They see the way the wind is blowing, nothing more.
Who's ready for the new Trump salad dressing? Et tu, Jeff?
The world is fucked, but we're about to get the best salad dressing ever.
So do we like Trump now or do we like tech billionaire?
No.
Why do we care what they think if we dislike them then? Surely if they are greedy oligarchs this would likely be a good thing.