For Silicon Valley leaders, cozying up to the Trump administration was a mistake

Nick Clegg argues that Silicon Valley’s close alignment with Donald Trump after his 2024 reelection was a strategic misjudgment, not simply a matter of individual executives’ choices. By the time of the 2026 midterms, the alliance had failed on its own terms: China had narrowed or surpassed the United States in important areas of AI, American public attitudes toward AI had deteriorated, and major economies were seeking to reduce their dependence on U.S. technology. Though Trump’s administration helped tech firms challenge some European regulatory actions, the broader result was heightened anti-American and anti-Big Tech sentiment around the world.

Clegg attributes the pivot to fear of being excluded from deals, resentment toward media and government, and executives’ overconfidence about politics. Silicon Valley leaders mistook Trump’s narrow victory for a lasting mandate, while some venture capitalists treated success on crypto regulation as proof that they could reshape national politics. Clegg distinguishes investors’ political activism from the responsibilities of executives running companies whose technologies affect society broadly. He warns that partisan alignment invites retaliation when power changes hands and can undermine both innovation and public trust. AI’s benefits, he says, require cooperation between government and technology companies across party lines. Major firms should maintain working relationships with whoever governs rather than attach themselves to a political faction or try to influence which party wins.