President Donald Trump inspired school graduates to “break the system” whereas bragging that high web executives like billionaire Elon Musk initially “hated me in my first term, and now they’re kissing my ass.”
“If you look at some of these internet people, I know so many of them, Elon is so terrific. But I know, now all of them, you know they all hated me in my first term, and now they’re kissing my ass. It’s true. All of them. It’s true,” he mentioned to applause earlier than graduating college students on the College of Alabama Thursday night time.
“It’s amazing. It’s nicer this way,” he added.
Musk turned one in all Trump’s strongest advocates and closest advisers within the White Home after reportedly donating $288 million in direction of Trump and different Republican candidates forward of final November’s election, which was the very best quantity spent by anybody.
This follows Musk dismissing Trump as “too old” to be president again in 2022 and reportedly calling Trump “a fucking moron” behind his again whereas touring the White Home after Trump’s first win, in accordance to Politico.
Fellow tech CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who owns Fb and Instagram mum or dad firm Meta, has additionally leaped nearer to Trump after initially butting heads with him forward of his second White Home win.
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI through Getty Pictures
Trump repeatedly took swings at Fb’s institution of third-party fact-checkers and filed a lawsuit over his social media accounts being suspended by Meta after the violent 2021 rebel on the U.S. Capitol.
Meta went on to donate $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund in December and in January it introduced the abolishment of its fact-checking program and an settlement to pay Trump $25 million over his suspended accounts.
Each Musk and Zuckerberg had been usually seen entrance and middle throughout Trump’s final inaugural occasions, together with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
Bloomberg through Getty Pictures
A senior Trump administration official again in January referred to as Zuckerberg’s efforts to appease Trump “a good start,” however mentioned extra puckering up is required.
“There is a lot more ass-kissing that needs to be done,” the official instructed Rolling Stone. “He just needs to prove himself. It’s a good start, but he can’t just snap his fingers and make the past not happen.”
