Summary
Donald Trump’s second term is poised to feature significant influence from a network of right-wing tech figures, including Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and David Sacks, many linked to the “PayPal Mafia.”
These allies bring a focus on deregulation, cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence, and military technology, with numerous appointments in key federal roles.
Critics highlight their ties to venture capital, skepticism of institutions, and profit motives, while proponents see them as champions of innovation.
Questions remain about their impact, given part-time roles and the limits of Trump’s ability to implement radical tech policies.
Can you imagine how often these guys have to simplify what they’re talking about to get through to him? Musk is a moron too, but Thiel? Sacks? Not at all. And even Musk can at least, in general, understand the terminology when they talk about it.
Imagine trying to explain crypto or LLMs to Trump…
Trump’s sons only had to explain the possibility to launder money and bribes through crypto for him to go all in and even create his own platform he has zero understanding of. The video of him trying to pay for a burger with crypto was amazing, the 2 owner guys had to essentially take his phone and do it themselves to make sure it was done right.
Right? I wish more people saw that. Not only was he clearly unclear on crypto, it was pretty obvious he was unclear on the whole concept of paying for things himself.
Man of the people.
I haven’t heard about this, WHAT‽
I saw the video on The Majority Report the day after it happened, so I have no idea how to find it for you, sorry. He was in a “bitcoin bar” in NYC that only accepted crypto and they tried to get him to pay for it and it was a hilarious fiasco.
No, friend, no need to be sorry. That’s still an interesting behavior, that’s for certain.
As he walks out, he leans to his assistant “do a chargeback on that 9 Bitcoin or whatever. I’m not paying for that burger, I did THEM a favor by being here”
Are you kidding me, they are probably so happy to have a guy who knows zero about what they are saying. They can lie via omission and get permission for projects without fully detailing anything to the guy who doesn’t want details. He rubber stamps their hateful shit because in return he collects a fee from them for the grift. That’s trumps grift. He used to grift honest businesses but he’s moved into grifting other grifters who grift the public via policy now.
I’m pretty sure it’s mutual. Republicans are happy they finally entered the 21st century. They don’t have to know anything. Now the magical modern machines are working for them.
I’m 99% certain Musk told Trump that he will use twitter algos to nudge targeted segments of the population to find those “11000 votes” he needs. Probably Zuck and Thiel did the same with Meta platforms and reddit respectively. Hence the final weeks of the campaign the republicans seems to stop caring at all. Just blow job a microphone it doesn’t matter. The tech bros had fixed the election already.
“For the last time grandpa, stop storing your important docs in the recycle bin.”
He probably refuses to put docs in the recycling bin because recycling is for liberal hippies. So everything he’s ever written is available.
So many icons cluttering that desktop.
Eh, it’s not like Thiel or Sacks are great minds of our time either. I’d be willing to bet the way those guys talk about the tech they’re obsessed with would make anyone with actual knowledge of it cringe.
And yet they would still have to severely dumb it down for Trump. Constantly. In fact, they would probably have to explain it to him all over again the next day.
You’re implying they care if he understands and that he’d ever admit that he doesn’t and both are frankly ridiculous