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Vice President JD Vance said during an interview Sunday that Big Tech is still “on guard” when pressed by the presence of various tech executives at President Trump’s inauguration, as well as million donations the group collectively gave to the inaugural events.
“The richest people in the world were in that Capitol on Inauguration Day. The heads of Amazon, Google, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg. You told us in August that Google and Facebook were too big. ‘We should take Teddy Roosevelt’s approach. Break ’em up. No. let them control what people are allowed to say.’ Now they donated to Trump’s inauguration. Are you still going to tear Big Tech apart?” CBS News’ Margaret Brennan asked Vance before noting the seating arrangement on Inauguration Day.
Brennan’s question comes at a time when the presence of big tech CEOs has sparked backlash from several media outlets, such as MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow. These CEOs included Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Tim Cook of Apple, Sundar Pichai of Google and Elon Musk of X.
“We fundamentally believe that Big Tech has too much power, and there are two ways they can do that. They can respect the constitutional rights of Americans — they can stop engaging in censorship, and if they don’t, you can be absolutely certain that Donald Trump’s leadership will not be too kind to them.” , Vance said.
Vice President JD Vance told Sudnay that Big Tech is “still on alert,” despite their donations to President Trump’s inauguration festivities. (Screenshot/CBS)
Brennan followed up by asking if CEOs were still on notice.
“They’re on high alert,” Vance replied.
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The big donations and attendance at Trump’s inauguration marked a major departure for Big Tech, which largely imposed a temporary ban on Trump’s public profiles in 2020 through its social media platforms. Those companies have also become more critical of the Biden administration, expressing displeasure with attempts at White House oversight.
In particular, Zuckerberg announced that Facebook and Instagram will do away with their fact-checking mechanism in the future and use a community annotation system.
Mark Zuckerberg, Lauren Sanchez, Jeff Bezos and Sundar Pichai stand before the 60th presidential inauguration in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times via AP, Pool)
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The group’s presence at Trump’s inauguration was considered as important as CNN’s Jake Tapper lamented on Monday that the U.S. “is going to enter an era of profound misinformation, and all kinds of misinformation, and the degree to which these five gentlemen play or don’t play a role, will be critical in terms of where the American people are four years from now, in terms of understanding what the truth is , and what a lie.”
Vance also appeared to argue that the presence of tech CEOs at Trump’s inauguration was not that relevant, noting that many of those in attendance did not donate to the inauguration festivities.
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“They’ve got pretty good seats,” CBS’s Brennan said.
“They didn’t have as good a place to sit as my mom and a lot of other people who were there to support us,” Vance said.
