Tech billionaire support for Donald Trump is paying off in some of the expected ways, such as  extraordinary access and deregulation.  But Trump has wreaked havoc on the stock market, disappointed his crypto backers, and failed to save Mark Zuckerberg from a grilling at the Federal Trade Commission.

Big Tech Access to the President
The stock market meltdown was underway on April 10 when Trump boarded Air Force One and headed to his golf club in Miami for a tournament sponsored by wealthy corporate backers including Tik Tok.  The next day he extended the deadline for Tik Tok owner Byte Dance to sell its US business for 90 days- the second time he’d given the company an extension.

Back in Washington, Mark Zuckerberg was closing on a $23 million home In Washington, D.C., the third most expensive real estate sale in that city’s history. He’d been in town unsuccessfully lobbying Trump for help dodging an antitrust trial that started April 14 despite Zuckerberg’s entreaties.  The Federal Trade Commission alleges Meta’s purchase of WhatsApp and Instagram was a deliberate strategy to kill Facebook’s competition, and the government’s lawyers did not go easy on Zuckerberg when he testified.

Zuckerberg is also looking to Trump to go to bat for him with the European Union, which holds Meta to far more stringent standards than it faces here in the US.  Meta has been hit with over $3 billion in fines by the European Union for violations of its privacy and antitrust rules.  At the Munich Security Conference in February where JD Vance attacked the US’s European allies, Meta executive Joel Kaplan suggested Meta was being treated unfairly and warned of US retaliation.  “When companies are treated differently in a way that is discriminatory against them, then that should be highlighted to that company’s home government,” he said.  “So I think we will do that with President Trump.”

Trump Gives to Crypto and Takes From Crypto

The Winklevosses and other Crypto billionaires bet big on Trump, expecting a lax regulatory environment or no regulations at all.  Or no one to enforce them.  The US Justice Department has already shuttered the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team,  a division devoted to monitoring fraud in the crypto industry.

The staff heard the news from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, whose credentials for that role include his defense of Trump in the 2024 criminal trial in which Trump was found guilty of 34 felonies.  His announcement criticized former president Joe Biden, who, according to Blanche, “used the justice department to pursue a reckless strategy of regulation by prosecution.”

Blanche said there will be an about-face at the Justice Department, which will now focus on “prosecuting individuals who victimize digital asset investors, or those who use digital assets in furtherance of criminal offenses such as terrorism, narcotics and human trafficking, organized crime, hacking, and cartel and gang financing”.

As expected, President Trump signed into law a bill that loosens cryptocurrency regulations by eliminating IRS requirements that crypto trading platforms be treated as brokers and that they track and report user activity, reversing the Biden policy of strengthening crypto tax reporting.

But the Bitcoin bros, who fell in love when Trump promised to make the US the “Bitcoin superpower of the world,” lost some of that loving feeling when they realized that Bitcoin would not serve as the core currency of the new national crypto reserve Trump is starting.  Instead, he will use his currency, USD1, a Stablecoin.  Unlike Bitcoin, which doesn’t have central management, USD1 is solely managed by Trump’s World Liberty Financial.  “As President Trump has directed, we are going to keep the U.S. the dominant reserve currency in the world, and we will use Stablecoins to do that,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.

Tariffs Are On, Tariffs Are Off

Trump did back off of tariffs for tech products- for now- but Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and other tech billionaires have already lost billions.  Trump has also cut federal funding for AI research and his immigration policies are leading to an industry that depends on immigrant talent.  And, after the wild ride of the last 3 months, even his buddies know there’s no there’s no telling what he’ll do next.  The question is whether the tech billionaires will continue to do his bidding if he fails to do theirs.

Engagement Resources

The Tech Oversight Project, https://techoversight.org, Punish Bad Actions from Big Tech.

Here’s How Much Bay Area Tech Billionaires Lost As A Result In Recent Tariff-Induced Market Turmoil  By Aidin Vaziri, April 15, 2025

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/billionaires-market-losses-20275770.php

The Tech Accountability & Competition Project at Yale School of Law, https://law.yale.edu/mfia/projects/tech-accountability-competition-project

The TAC Project aims to promote and enforce comprehensive legal regimes that require technology companies, digital platforms, and other public and private actors exerting power in the digital space to reduce harms arising from their business models and practices and respect the rights of all people affected by their products and services.