‘It’s Almost Like Recode Was in the Air Duct at Trump Tower’ ⇥ recode.net

Kara Swisher, Recode:

Thank goodness, you have Recode to tell you who said what in the room immediately after Trump did a decidedly odd little handshake with investor Peter Thiel (who rounded up the Silicon Valley potentates for Trump), talked about a stock market “bounce,” and noted how smart those gathered were. (It was def a collection of smarties, all wearing their fancy clothes!)

But after the press left and the doors were closed, the visitors from the digital world actually did try to bring up a number of substantive major issues with Trump and those gathered there. Trump’s three eldest kids were present, which most sources close to the execs (no, I am not saying which ones) thought was inappropriate on a number of levels.

Nearly all of the questions asked by those who attended seem fairly expected. I don’t think there’s much here — aside from Larry Page’s apparent questioning of delivering AC vs. DC over power lines — that surprised me. Still, it’s worth a read.

I think the part that is most astonishing, to me, of all of these meetings is how much of it is being done behind closed doors and away from the press. The president-elect hasn’t held a press conference since July. His meetings with high-powered executives in off-the-record exchanges where he’s promised that “anything we can do to help […] you’ll call my people, you’ll call me” are in the public interest.

One of the most interesting exchanges was with Alphabet executive chairman Eric Schmidt, who briefly noted that he pondered what he would do if he were president […]

Please, no.