Trump Disrupts the Valley

Since the end of the Obama presidency, an era of unsurpassed political influence for the Northern California establishment, tech leaders have repeatedly spoken of the need to empathize with the losers of the postindustrial meritocracy. Concomitant with this empathetic mood are plans for expanding the role of Silicon Valley in American politics. Meanwhile, in the face of unprecedented unrest among the tech industry rank-and-file over trump's immigration and climate change policies, Silicon Valley executives and financiers have engaged in a rapprochement with the new administration. Trump's abandonment of economic positions that threatened the dominant portions of American business—anti-monopoly, protectionism a crackdown on tax havens—has led to a sense of relief in the upper echelons of the Valley. The barons on the Pacific want to remain in the good graces of both their liberal employees and brutish Republican politicians. For the time being, that balancing act is working Whether people are still interested in their vision for the future is another question