Trump Promises Tech Execs 'Easier' Trade Conditions

News Analysis Dan Jones, Mobile Editor 12/15/2016

Executives from Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Cisco and more met with President-elect Trump Wednesday afternoon in a fence-mending exercise in Manhattan, with Trump telling the group, "We're going to make it easier for you to trade across borders."

As previously reported, the relationship had largely been antagonistic previously, with Trump calling for a boycott of Apple products when the vendor wouldn't help the FBI break the security on the iPhone from one of the San Bernardino shooters. Most of Silicon Valley, meanwhile, supported Hillary Clinton -- or even Bernie Sanders -- in the presidential race. (See DoJ Says 3rd Party Can Crack Terror Suspect's iPhone and Change Agent Orange? Tech to Talk to Trump.)

For all the latest news from the wireless networking and services sector, check out our dedicated mobile content channel here on Light Reading.

As expected, topics up for discussion -- behind closed doors -- included China, immigration and repatriating tech firms' overseas cash hordes. In the introductory remarks, however, Trump said that he was "here to help," wants to continue to promote innovation and make overseas trade easier for tech companies, as you can see in the video posted by the AP below:

Trump -- flanked by the execs and his grown children (except Tiffany!) -- couldn't resist noting how the stock market has risen since he won the election.

"I'm very honored by the bounce, everybody's talking about the bounce, so right now everybody in this room has to like me at least a little bit," Trump declared. US stocks fell on Wednesday after the feds announced an interest rate hike, with more rate rises planned in 2017.

Ironically, given how much Trump utilizes Twitter Inc. as his digital bully pulpit, Twitter CEO Jack Dempsey wasn't invited to the shindig. This is reportedly because Twitter wouldn't make an emoji of the hashtag "Crooked Hillary," although the Trump team has since denied this.

Related posts:

— Dan Jones, Mobile Editor, Light Reading