Trump’s Tech Summit ⇥ nytimes.com

David Streitfeld, New York Times:

One by one, the leaders of the world’s most elite and successful technology companies trooped up to the 25th floor to meet President-elect Donald J. Trump, who had criticized them and who they, in turn, had criticized. The executives did not acknowledge or speak to the press on the way in.

[…]

The technology world had been in turmoil as the meeting drew near. Some argued the chief executives should boycott the event to show their disdain for Mr. Trump’s values. Others maintained they should go and forthrightly make their values clear. And still others thought they should attend and make their accommodations with the new reality.

According to a source for Emily Chang of Bloomberg, the topics of this meeting were infrastructure, education, and cash repatriation policy. Also attending the largely white, largely male meeting were Ivanka, Eric, and Donald Trump Jr., because untangling Trump’s conflicts of interest is so hard that it’s easier to define his entire presidency through nepotism and profiteering.

I’m trying to remain optimistic that the executives in attendance today made known their disagreements and objections to many of Trump’s campaign promises. Despite their faces, I’m worried that they didn’t, and are accepting what is unfolding as though it were normal. It isn’t.