Tech bosses backtrack on anti-Trump rhetoric

With many tech bosses, including most in Silicon Valley, coming out against Trump during the campaign, most are now tempering their words, realising they're actually going to have to work with the president-elect

Having slammed president-elect Donald Trump during his tumultuous election campaign, many technology bosses are now tempering their attitudes, realising that they will shortly need to work with the Republican regime.

Box CEO Aaron Levie described Trump as the "scariest person in America" in a tweet earlier in 2016, but has now said technology companies must begin "bridging the divide" between Silicon Valley and Washington in an interview with US network CNBC.

"Now, moving forward, we know that we must work constructively with D.C. and with the new administration on making sure that we have an economy and we have a tech sector and an innovation push that works for everybody," said Levie, who supported Democrat Hillary Clinton in the US presidential race.

During the election campaign he described one of Trump's debate performances as being "like someone who's drunk" and also called him "obviously unelectable."

Levie was restrained however compared to Matthew Harrigan, CEO of California-based software company PacketSled, who took to Twitter to threaten to threaten to assassinate Trump during the campaign. Harrigan's resignation was accepted by PackSled's board shortly after his outburst.

Also climbing down from previously strong anti-Trump sentiments were Meg Whitman, CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, who told CNBC recently that it's time to come together and give Trump "the benefit of the doubt."

Similarly, Matt Maloney, CEO of Grubhub, posted a blog to his firm's website denying accusations that he had asked any of his employees to leave if they had voted for Trump.

"While demeaning, insulting and ridiculing minorities, immigrants and the physically/mentally disabled worked for Mr. Trump, I want to be clear that this behavior - and these views, have no place at Grubhub. Had he worked here, many of his comments would have resulted in his immediate termination," Maloney had written shortly after Trump's election victory.

More recently, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey described his "complicated" feelings about Trump's use of his firm's services.

Speaking at the Code Commerce conference in California, Dorsey denied that Twitter was responsible for Trump's win.

"America is responsible for Donald Trump being president," he said, but admitted that the President Elect had garnered significant support via his tweets.

"He's known how to use [Twitter] for quite some time. I think it's an important time for the company and service. And having the president-elect on our service, using it as a direct line of communication, allows everyone to see what's on his mind in the moment. I think that's interesting. I think it's fascinating. I haven't seen that before.

"We're definitely entering a new world where everything is on the surface and we can all see it in real time and we can have conversations about it. Where does that go? I'm not really sure. But it's definitely been fascinating to learn from."

Asked to describe his feelings about Trump's use of the service, Dorsey responded: "Complicated".

"I feel very proud of the role of the service and what it stands for and everything that we've done, and that continues to accelerate every single day. Especially as it's had such a spotlight on it through his usage and through the election."