A picture worth a thousand words
The scene has something surreal about it. The most powerful tech CEOs — those who shape our digital lives — sitting in a White House room to watch a movie about Melania Trump. Not a working meeting on AI, not a discussion about platform regulation. A movie screening.
The image is political before it's social. It says: we're on the same side. It says: we have access. It says: don't regulate us too harshly.
The CEOs' calculus
Why come? The economic answer is obvious. The current administration decides on antitrust investigations, AI regulations, massive federal contracts. A White House lunch, a photo with the president, a demonstration of loyalty — these are goodwill investments that can be worth billions.
There's also fear. Tech has seen what happens when it's perceived as hostile to power. Congressional hearings, breakup threats, punitive taxes. Better to be in the room than in the crosshairs.
What this changes for tech regulation
The image of CEOs courting political power undermines the industry's credibility when it claims to self-regulate. How can you take AI ethics promises seriously when the same leaders are jostling for a presidential photo op?
For European regulators, it's one more argument. If American tech can't maintain its independence from its own government, why should Europe trust it with sensitive data?
Historical precedent
This isn't the first time. Telecom moguls, finance titans, oil barons — all have made this pilgrimage at one point or another. Tech imagined itself different, post-political, meritocratic. This image definitively buries that illusion.
What's new is the concentration of power. When five companies control the planet's communication, commerce, and artificial intelligence infrastructure, their political alignment isn't a social detail. It's a democracy question.
The absences speak too
Who wasn't in the room? Probably those who decided the reputational cost exceeded the political benefit. Or those who weren't invited. Either way, absence sends a message as strong as presence.
Silicon Valley's fragmentation is real. There's now an openly Trumpist tech and a tech that prefers to keep its distance. This division will have consequences for investments, hiring, partnerships.
What we remember
Beyond the spectacle, this evening illustrates an uncomfortable truth: tech isn't above politics. It's part of it. It has interests to defend, compromises to make, allegiances to negotiate.
The myth of the startup garage changing the world independently of power was nice. It's been dead for a long time. These photos are just its most recent epitaph.
The question for 2026 is no longer whether tech is political. It's whether it will serve the public or only those with access to White House salons.