With the presidential election in a dead heat, Donald Trump claims some of the biggest tech CEOs have come calling.
Trump said during a rally Thursday that he had spoken to the “leader of Google,” then added in a Friday interview with podcast host Joe Rogan that it was Sundar Pichai. Trump told Rogan that Pichai apparently complimented Trump’s campaign stop, where he dished out fries at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s.
In an interview Thursday with conservative radio talk-show host Hugh Hewitt, Trump also said Apple CEO Tim Cook had called him. The former president said he and Cook discussed Apple’s headaches in Europe, including the $14 billion in taxes that the company owes to the government of Ireland. Trump suggested that if he were elected for a second time, Apple’s problems would go away.
During Hewitt’s show, Trump described Apple and Google as “great companies.”
“If you look at Google lately, I think you’re going to see they’ve become much more inclined towards Trump. They’re starting to like Trump, because they’re starting to get it,” he told Hewitt.
Meanwhile, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy also reached out to Trump, according to CNN. The company instigated the call, and sources told CNN that the conversation was a “general, hello-type thing.”
Apple, Google, and Amazon did not immediately respond to Coins2Day’s requests for comment. But a spokesperson for Google told CNN that the company had “nothing to share” regarding Trump’s comments on Pichai.
As polls and prediction markets swing in favor of the Republican nominee, executives and business leaders belonging to the invite-only Business Council are quietly preparing for the possibility of a second Trump presidency, the Washington Post reported.
The business world’s top brass are especially concerned about Trump’s promise to escalate tariffs and the threat that he might retaliate against his perceived enemies.
As recently as September, Trump had accused Google of only showing “bad stories” about him, and said, if elected, he would request the company be prosecuted by the Justice Department. And earlier this month, he refused to say he would stop the company from being broken up, after it lost an antitrust suit brought against it by the Justice Department.
Comments made to the Post by an anonymous Trump campaign advisor have done little to lessen business leaders’ anxiety.
“I’ve told CEOs to engage as fast as possible, because the clock is ticking … If you’re somebody who has endorsed Harris, and we’ve never heard from you at any point until after the election, you’ve got an uphill battle,” the advisor said.