Getting Too Close to Trump Was a Mistake

Nick Clegg: “Over the past week, following MAGA’s significant losses in the midterms, I have been asked the same questions again and again: How could Silicon Valley have gotten it so wrong? Why did tech leaders not anticipate the consequences of joining themselves at the hip to MAGA straight after Donald Trump won reelection in 2024?”

“What follows is not a critique of the individual tech leaders themselves—some were more restrained than others—nor is it a personal commentary on Mark Zuckerberg, my former boss. I take it as a given that they all acted in what they saw as the interests of their own companies. Rather, my critique is of a herd mentality in the Valley that, in this important instance, led to such a serious and wholly predictable misjudgment.”

“It is especially interesting to try and understand why this happened because, measured against their own stated reasons for the great pivot, it has been a near-total failure.”