Behind the Curtain: Trump vs. tech titans

The tech vision: We're at the dawn of the AI Epoch — driven by a technology so all-powerful it will reorder markets, industries and nations.

• The U.S. enjoys an early, decisive AI advantage that could fuel a manufacturing and middle-class renaissance. American-made chips, data, minerals and energy companies (and adjacent work) will proliferate and prosper. Lose this race and little else matters.

The Trump vision: America is in steep, perhaps fatal decline. 

• The country has been "looted pillaged, raped and plundered." Salvation demands brute, unapologetic force to erase trade deficits, and muscle a 1950s America back into existence. AI won't do that. Tariffs will.
• Yes, it'll be painful. But big buildings, new factories and good-paying jobs will follow for millions of Americans. Some'll be AI jobs. Many others will be traditional gigs like line worker, plumber or electrician.

What they're saying: Steve Bannon — a White House official in Trump's first term, and now an influential MAGA podcaster — told us he sees tech bros as "narcissistic globalists that put their wealth and power first."

• With his fellow populist nationalists, Bannon says, "the country and the American citizens come first."

Musk tweeted over the weekend (now deleted) that Peter Navarro, the Trump trade adviser leading the populist charge, "ain't built s--t."

• Navarro retorted Monday on CNBC's "Squawk Box" that Musk is "not a car manufacturer. He's a car assembler, in many cases."

The big picture: Look at who's speaking out — or staying quiet — to understand how this dynamic is unfolding. It's both tech innovators (Elon Musk, Reid Hoffman) and hedge-fund magnates (Bill Ackman, Stan Druckenmiller) sounding the alarm about tariffs. They know little can be made cheaply in America fast, especially vital technology ingredients. We simply don't have the materials or workforce here. They want Trump to unleash his unpredictability and power to impose mineral deals and savvy incentives.

• Brad Gerstner, founder and CEO of the tech investment firm Altimeter Capital, tweeted Monday: "nuclear style tariffs is not what people voted for - they will break the US economy NOT make us great again. CEOs support pro business Trump who promised precision guided truly reciprocal, smart tariffs that level the global playing field."
• Joe Lonsdale, a pro-Trump tech investor, said on X that there are ways "the tariffs could be done better."
• Balaji Srinivasan, a well-known angel investor and crypto bull, posted to his 1.1 million X followers after Trump's "Liberation Day" announcement: "This is nuking every single supply chain that passes through the US in any way, under the illusion that 45 years of deindustrialization can be fixed in one day of 45% tariffs."

On the other side sit true America First believers like Bannon, who hold deep suspicion, even disdain, for the tech titans.

• The Bannonites see tariffs as the world's comeuppance for screwing America's working class, and firmly believe good-paying jobs will materialize. They believe AI could hurt U.S. workers — just like trade deals did — and envision a broader-based renaissance. So tariffs are a smart, if painful, way to reset things. Eventually, companies will build here, come here, stay here.
• Bannon, after the administration announced Monday that Trump had kicked off high-level tariff negotiations with Japan, texted us: "Isolate China ... Let a New Golden Age Now Begin."

Between the lines: The merger of Trump's MAGA base with what we call the Tech Bro Industrial Complex (tech CEOs, investors, workers, podcasters) was always an imperfect fit. Trump, 78, assembled his original base with a mix of grievances and nostalgia, promising to make America what it once was. Trump and tech share a move fast, break things, high-testosterone mentality. But most tech CEOs are fixated on two things: future growth and AI. Trump spends little time fixating on tech, advisers tell us.

• The tariffs fight is testing the durability — and compatibility — of the Trump-tech alliance. After all, the top tech companies are taking an absolute beating, with the Magnificent 7 losing more than $1 trillion in the past three trading days alone. They can easily stomach such losses. But it's the vital technology ingredients (cell phones from Vietnam, chips from Taiwan) that are not mere nice-to-haves.
• Axios' Ben Berkowitz and Zachary Basu contributed reporting.

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