Trump is interested in dismantling Big Tech for all the wrong reasons



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President Donald Trump wants to dissolve Big Tech, but not for the reasons you might expect.

While Democrats like Senator Elizabeth Warren (MA) argue for the demolition of giants like Facebook and Amazon on the basis of their size and scope, Trump said during a CNBC telephone interview on Monday. morning that he was interested in government intervention, because, according to him, companies do not treat him fairly – an allegation that he has not provided any evidence to support.

"Well, I can tell you that they discriminate against me," Trump said in an interview with CNBC television. Squawk Box. "You know, people talk about collusion. The real conclusion is between the Democrats and these companies. Because they were so against me during my electoral race. Everyone said, "If you do not have them, you can not win." I've won, you know, and I'll win again because we're fine. We are no longer fools. We are not the idiotic country that hurts so badly. "

Facilitator Joe Kernen tried to support Trump on this point, asking him to put aside his personal grievances and say, "In terms of size and market dominance, do you think there is a monopoly problem? and antitrust with these big companies?

Trump did not really answer the question, but responded by suggesting that Attorney General William Barr should follow the pattern of the European Union of "pursuing them all the time" because that is the reason why. is "easy money".

"We have an excellent Attorney General, we will see things differently," said Trump.

Here is Trump's complete answer:

Well, something's going on, Joe. And I'll tell you this: the European Union, which is a fantastic group of negotiators, is actually a very important person you know well, who is often present in your show, said the head of the tax department. the European Union hates the United States more than anyone in the world. And I really believe that's true.

Every week you see them attacking Facebook, Apple and all those companies, which are, you know, great companies but things are going on. But I will say that the European Union pursues them all the time. We will look at them differently. We have an excellent Attorney General, we will see things differently.

When they give the European Union $ 7 billion, $ 5 billion and $ 2 billion, and you know, Apple is sued for $ 10 billion. And you know, right now it's going on, but eventually they'll settle down. They have all this money. We should do it – these are our societies, so they attack our societies. But we should do what they do. They think that there is a monopoly. But I'm not sure if they think that. They just think it's easy money, we're going to sue Apple for $ 7 billion and we'll make a settlement or we'll win the case. So, I think it's a bad situation. But, obviously, something is happening in terms of monopoly.

Watch:

The irony is that not only the big tech companies were not biased against Trump in 2016, but Facebook and Twitter have in fact played a key role in the Kremlin orchestrated misinformation campaign that has been going on. helped to get elected. As special advocate Robert Mueller explained during his investigation of electoral interference in Russia, Kremlin agents spent millions of dollars to buy commercials to help Trump and have used sock puppet accounts to broadcast messages favorable to Trump. More recently, the Trump campaign has posted ads on Facebook that appears to violate the company's terms of service against deceptive content, but there is no indication that Facebook has taken steps to stop it.

Trump, however, seems to consider Big Tech's efforts to combat harassment and misinformation as a personal attack against him:

The message that Trump sent to Facebook, Google, Amazon and other technology giants on CNBC was clear: they should do what they want if they want to prevent the federal government from getting into their business. This is the latest illustration of how Trump is trying to arm the Justice Department against its alleged enemies.

The rest of the CNBC interview was barely consistent, but it's the same with Trump's journey

Trump, who publicly pushed the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates for several months, opened the CNBC interview by calling the Fed "very, very destructive."

"We have people – that's more than just Jay Powell – we have people from the Fed who really were not, ah, they are not my people," said Trump, ignoring the in fact, he actually appointed four of the current five members of the board of directors. .

The interview also ended on a bizarre note, Trump asking the US Chamber of Commerce to "start representing the United States, not just the member companies of the American Chamber of Commerce." answer a segment Myron Brilliant, Executive Vice President of the US Chamber of Commerce, argued against tariffs.


The new advance quickly. To stay up to date, follow Aaron Rupar on Twitter, and read more Political and political coverage of Vox.

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