With the US Presidential election drawing nearer and nearer, the world waits to see if the Democrats will prevail with bated breath – or if former President Donald Trump reclaims his seat in the Oval Office.
This is set to be one of the most landmark elections in modern US history, with Democratic nominee Kamala Harris currently edging her Republican rival by the narrowest of margins. November 5th promises more than just a leadership contest – it’s a referendum on two vastly different approaches to government.
The outcome will also have massive implications for the technology industry, but to what end? Concluding my two-part series, I’ll be unpacking what a Donald Trump presidency could mean for the sector.
Tech During Trump’s First Term
Given that Trump’s political career started relatively late in life, there is little to no information available on his relationship with the tech sector prior to taking office. Therefore, my predictions will be informed by that turbulent first term and the years that followed.
Trump’s shock election win in 2016 was met with a collective intake of breath. Most onlookers – not to mention millions of voters – expected Hillary Clinton to cruise to a routine victory. They were to be surprised by one of the biggest upsets in US political history – which promptly set the tone for what would come next.
Like many of his policies, his approach to tech was predicated on championing domestic innovation, while trying to reduce the country’s reliance on outside influence. When it came to 5G, for instance, he was determined to lead the way, declaring in 2019: “The race to 5G is on and we must win,” Brookings reports.
To his credit, the former president was instrumental in pushing the issue to the top of the federal agenda. Later, in March 2020, he signed the “Secure 5G and Beyond Act” into law, which called for the development of a strategy to secure and protect 5G technology.
Many of Trump’s biggest contributions to the tech sector were borne out of his paranoia around China. In 2019, he moved to quickly see off competition from the superpower by designating AI as a “national research and development” priority. He claimed: “This is not an option. This is a necessity,” Pelican Institute reports.
Elsewhere, the former president imposed severe restrictions on Huawei, cutting off access to US technology and preventing the telecommunications company from accessing critical components for its production. At the time, Huawei threatened to supersede Samsung as the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer – in response, it has drastically overhauled its business practices.
Prompted by fears over national security, Trump also set the long-gestating TikTok ban into motion in 2020. To prevent this from happening, parent company ByteDance agreed to divest the platform. Four years later, however, TikTok is on the cusp of a complete ban, with a crucial bill passed in the House earlier this year. Somewhat ironically, Trump has since done a total 180 on TikTok, and has promised to reverse the intended ban, should he secure the presidency.
Trump’s War on Social Media
As a self-avowed businessman, many expected President Trump to look favorably on the tech sector. As his tenure went on, however, he began a vicious campaign against Silicon Valley, with social media platforms the main target of his wrath. In 2020, he attempted to punish the likes of Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram over perceived censorship. The Republican went after a 1996 bill that had enshrined wide-ranging protections for Big Tech companies. He failed.
Following the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, and his subsequent blacklisting on Twitter and Facebook, Trump, again, rounded on the space: “I think that Big Tech is doing a horrible thing for our country and to our country, and I believe it’s going to be a catastrophic mistake for them. They’re dividing and divisive,” Reuters reports.
His agenda continued in July that year, when he brought class action against Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, alleging that he and other high-profile conservatives were subject to unfair censoring. He vowed: “We’re going to hold Big Tech very accountable,” as per AP News.
After several months of screaming into the void on challenger platform Truth Social, Trump was reinstated to Twitter in 2023 – now called X and headed up by the controversial Elon Musk. Musk has since aligned himself with the former president, with many suspecting that the tech mogul might be positioning himself for a potential future role in Trump’s cabinet.
What Can We Expect from a Trump Presidency?
It’s expected that Trump would favor a more hands-off approach to AI regulation than his Democrat rival. Throughout his first term in the White House, he was eager to push the technology its full potential, with little care paid to the consequences. In recent months, he has pledged to repeal “Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence,” sweeping legislation enacted by the Biden-Harris Administration last year which seeks to limit the potential dangers posed by AI.
Trump’s laid back approach to AI can be seen in his own use of it, when he recently posted an AI image of Taylor Swift, falsely claiming that she was voting for him. It was a move that ultimately resulted in Swift coming out in favor of Harris.
Reportedly, Trump plans to make space for Musk in some capacity. Their courtship appears to have begun in earnest a few months ago, when the X CEO publicly declared his support for the Republican. Since then, the presidential hopeful has mentioned Musk 82 times and counting, as per analysis conducted by Bloomberg, compared to five times in the previous six months.
In that period, various roles have been mooted. Among them, head of a “government efficiency commission tasked with conducting a complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government,” Forbes outlines. For his part, Musk has claimed he “can’t wait” and that there is “a lot of waste and needless regulation in government that needs to go.”
However this particular subplot shakes out, I can say with a degree of certainty that Trump would seek to put America firmly back on the map with regards to technology. Expect a lighter regulatory touch – with a no-holds-barred approach to AI.
