Trump to tech leaders: "You'll call my people, you'll call me—it doesn't make any difference—we have no formal chain of command around here" pic.twitter.com/F4jBKA38zU
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) December 14, 2016
President-elect Donald Trump praised a group of top tech industry leaders on Wednesday and urged them to call him whenever necessary.
“We want you to keep going with the incredible innovation. There’s nobody like you in the world. There’s nobody like the people in this room,” the president-elect said.
“And anything we can do to help this go long. We’re going to be there for you. And you’ll call my people, you’ll call me — it doesn’t make any difference — we have no formal chain of command around here.”
{mosads}Trump said during the meeting that the tech leaders who gathered Wednesday were “an amazing group of people.”
“I’m here to help you folks do well,” he said. “You’re doing well right now.”
He added he plans to implement fair trade deals when he assumes office.
“We’re going to make it a lot easier for you to trade across borders,” he said.
“If you have any ideas on that, that would be great.”
Trump has had a tenuous relationship with the technology industry, especially with firms in Silicon Valley. He met Wednesday with influential tech players including Tesla’s Elon Musk; Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg; Eric Schmidt and Larry Page of Alphabet, Google’s parent company; and Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon who also owns The Washington Post.