Trump hosts dinner with tech giants on the White Home, however Elon Musk did not attend

Washington — President Trump hosted a dinner Thursday evening on the White Home with tech giants and different enterprise and political leaders, however Tesla CEO Elon Musk was not be amongst these attending.

Greater than a dozen tech titans have been invited to the occasion, together with Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook dinner, Microsoft founder Invoice Gates, OpenAI founder Sam Altman, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, in keeping with the White Home. The Hill first reported the checklist of invitees.

Mr. Trump was seated subsequent to Zuckerberg, whereas Gates sat subsequent to first woman Melania Trump. The president — who has cultivated shut ties with the CEOs of corporations like Apple and Nvidia and sought funding pledges from a few of them — hailed the enterprise leaders, who he mentioned have been “main a revolution in enterprise and in genius.”

“That is undoubtedly a high-IQ group, and I am very pleased with them,” the president mentioned.

Mr. Trump invited a number of of the executives to talk, together with Zuckerberg, Nadella and Pichai.

Gates, whose charitable basis focuses closely on public well being, used a lot of his talking time to debate developments in vaccine expertise — remarks that got here hours after Well being and Human Companies Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine skeptic, confronted tense questions in a Senate listening to.

Gates lauded Mr. Trump’s Operation Warp Velocity COVID-19 vaccine initiative and mentioned that, whereas “we do not want new science” on polio vaccines, new analysis is required for illnesses like HIV and sickle promote anemia.

When requested by reporters whether or not he has confidence in Kennedy, Mr. Trump referred to as him a “superb particular person” who “means very effectively” and has a “totally different take.”

“It is not your customary discuss, I’d say,” Mr. Trump mentioned of Kennedy’s views on vaccines and drugs. “However if you happen to take a look at what is going on on on the earth with well being, and take a look at this nation additionally with regard to well being, I like the truth that he is totally different.”

Elon Musk says he was invited however could not attend

Musk — the world’s richest particular person — mentioned on X, “I used to be invited, however sadly couldn’t attend. A consultant of mine will probably be there.” A White Home official additionally confirmed Musk had been invited. 

Musk earlier this 12 months had a public falling-out with Mr. Trump as he left the administration, blasting Mr. Trump and his administration over authorities spending and the Epstein recordsdata. He pledged to start a new political get together, dubbed the “America Get together,” though that has but to come back to fruition.

Earlier this week, Mr. Trump predicted that Musk would ultimately return to the Republican Get together. 

“I do not suppose he has a alternative,” Mr. Trump mentioned in an interview this week on “The Scott Jennings Radio Present.” “So what’s he going to do, he is gonna go along with the novel left lunatics? They’re lunatics. I do not suppose he has a alternative. He is a person of widespread sense, he is a superb man.” 

The president mentioned of Musk, “He is a superb man. He acquired off the reservation, incorrectly, and that is okay, as a result of, you realize, it is simply a type of issues.” He additionally characterised the Tesla CEO as “80% tremendous genius, after which 20% he is acquired some issues,” and added, “and when he works out the 20%, he’ll be nice, however he is acquired some issue.”

Thursday’s dinner was briefly open to press cameras earlier than persevering with behind closed doorways. First woman Melania Trump hosted an AI summit earlier within the day, and a number of the dinner attendees attended. 

Mr. Trump has pursued shut relationships with tech CEOs, internet hosting numerous them for White Home conferences and even giving them prime entry at his inauguration. A lot of these CEOs donated to his inauguration fund.

A number of tech leaders have paid visits to the White Home previously, with Cook dinner utilizing a White Home occasion final month to  unveil a $100 billion dedication by Apple to fabricate within the U.S. Final month, the U.S. authorities additionally introduced it was taking a ten% stake in Intel, days after a White Home assembly with Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan. The transfer drew criticism from some conservatives and economists.

In the meantime, Mr. Trump has pressed tech corporations to spice up their U.S. presence, threatening a roughly 100% tariff on imported semiconductors except corporations have agreed to begin making chips within the U.S.

Sara Cook dinner and

Kristin Brown

contributed to this report.