Big Tech CEOs Kiss the Ring at Donald Trump’s Inauguration | Pivot
Kara Swisher (host), Narrator, Scott Galloway (host), Narrator, Pam Bondi (guest), Pete Hegseth (guest), Nancy (caller from Santa Rosa, CA) (guest), Narrator
In this episode of Pivot, featuring Kara Swisher and Narrator, Big Tech CEOs Kiss the Ring at Donald Trump’s Inauguration | Pivot explores big Tech Titans Bow To Trump As Democracy, TikTok Teeter Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway riff on Trump’s inauguration, focusing on the spectacle of Big Tech CEOs attending and what that reveals about power, shareholder incentives, and creeping autocracy. They contrast this with Biden’s largely overlooked but historically important farewell warning about a new tech-industrial oligarchy. The conversation then turns to the TikTok ban, China’s leverage over Elon Musk, and the broader failures of U.S. policy to address Chinese apps and data security coherently. In the back half, they dissect Trump’s cabinet confirmations—especially Pam Bondi and Pete Hegseth—as signs of hollowed-out governance, and close with economic implications of the LA fires, bank exposure, climate risk, and how tariffs and immigration policy may drive inflation.
Big Tech Titans Bow To Trump As Democracy, TikTok Teeter
Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway riff on Trump’s inauguration, focusing on the spectacle of Big Tech CEOs attending and what that reveals about power, shareholder incentives, and creeping autocracy. They contrast this with Biden’s largely overlooked but historically important farewell warning about a new tech-industrial oligarchy. The conversation then turns to the TikTok ban, China’s leverage over Elon Musk, and the broader failures of U.S. policy to address Chinese apps and data security coherently. In the back half, they dissect Trump’s cabinet confirmations—especially Pam Bondi and Pete Hegseth—as signs of hollowed-out governance, and close with economic implications of the LA fires, bank exposure, climate risk, and how tariffs and immigration policy may drive inflation.
Key Takeaways
Extreme wealth hasn’t translated into political independence for tech CEOs.
Despite being among the richest people in the world, leaders like Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos, Cook and others are still willing to “kiss the ring” at Trump’s inauguration to protect shareholder value and regulatory favor, showing how shareholder incentives overpower personal principle.
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Biden’s tech-industrial complex warning may age like Eisenhower’s speech.
Swisher and Galloway argue Biden’s farewell remarks on an emerging oligarchy of tech and money are historically important even if largely ignored now, akin to Eisenhower’s prescient warning about the military-industrial complex.
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The TikTok fight is about geopolitical credibility as much as data security.
They stress that backing off the congressionally mandated TikTok divest-or-ban would signal to China that the U. ...
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Elon Musk’s behavior shows how economic dependence curbs ‘free speech absolutism.’
Galloway notes Musk loudly attacks U. ...
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Democrats are attacking the wrong vector on Trump’s defense nominee.
They argue Senate Democrats focused too much on Pete Hegseth’s personal scandals and not enough on exposing his lack of domain expertise—missing a chance to publicly demonstrate his strategic and operational incompetence for the Defense role.
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Disaster risk in high-value areas should not be endlessly socialized.
On the LA fires, Galloway contends that people choosing to live in high-risk zones (wildfire coasts, hurricane coasts) should bear more of the true insurance and rebuild costs, rather than relying on federal taxpayers to repeatedly bail them out.
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Trump’s tariffs and immigration crackdown are structurally inflationary.
They predict that rebuilding LA, combined with tariffs and reduced immigrant labor, will spike construction and goods costs, pushing up inflation and bond yields; in their view the 10‑year Treasury will be the “adult in the room” countering Trump’s economic agenda.
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Notable Quotes
“I refuse to normalize this shit.”
— Kara Swisher
“None of these people want to go. None of them have to. They’re all worth $100 billion… I don’t know why you would be that rich and be pushed around like that.”
— Kara Swisher
“Between X and social media, they have basically just squeezed out… Is Biden still president? You wouldn’t know.”
— Scott Galloway
“We’re blinking right now. And I think that has geopolitical ramifications across any negotiation, whether it’s China or trade.”
— Scott Galloway
“He can be a low-character person and still, I hate to say this, be probably a competent Secretary of Defense. What you can’t be is a high-character person who doesn’t know what the fuck you’re doing.”
— Scott Galloway
Questions Answered in This Episode
If tech CEOs truly have “fuck you” money, why do they still act like supplicants to political power, and what would it actually look like for one of them to refuse to play along?
Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway riff on Trump’s inauguration, focusing on the spectacle of Big Tech CEOs attending and what that reveals about power, shareholder incentives, and creeping autocracy. ...
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How might Biden’s warning about a tech-industrial oligarchy concretely shape future antitrust, AI, or content-moderation policy if historians and policymakers take it seriously?
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What is the least-bad, realistic framework for handling foreign-owned social apps like TikTok and Red Note without either capitulating to China or undermining free speech?
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In evaluating leaders like Pete Hegseth, should voters and senators prioritize personal character or technical and strategic competence—and how do you balance the two in practice?
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Where should society draw the line between compassionate disaster relief and moral hazard when people repeatedly build and rebuild in high-risk, climate-exposed zones?
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Transcript Preview
No, I wait for the day where you're gonna say something to me that I'm gonna have to break up with you.
(instrumental music)
Hi, everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher, and it's inauguration weekend. I'm so excited I'm leaving town.
Folks, I just... I just wanna warn you, the inauguration, um, a ton of pornography, a lot of drinking, Peroni, Xanax, '80s music, aerial firefighters, just hang with me. I'm... Someone asked me, they're like, they were worried about me because I got so triggered at the election, and they said, "Are you all right after the inauguration?" I'm like, "Well, am I all right?"
Yeah. (laughs)
I feel like Ving Rhames after he was ass raped in Pulp Fiction.
(laughs)
I'm pretty fucking far from all right.
Uh-huh.
And I just... The-
Yeah.
... Democrats in an attempt to be somewhat civil-
Yeah.
... and, you know, uh, like they're back at their Princeton Review-
No. We're not gonna be civil.
I'm- I'm done.
We're not being civil.
I'm not, I'm not gonna be elegant or graceful about this. (laughs) I refuse to nor- I refuse to normalize this shit.
Yes, I agree with you, Scott. I'm on board. Someone told me, you know, you have to get along. I'm like, "Do I?" I don't do that in my regular life. I'm not... I feel like I'm gonna just stick to my consistent state of being irritating.
No, I'm g- I- I'm gonna be more partisan, more pornographic. So for those of you who don't know, and this is the part of the program where we pat ourselves on the back, Kara and I's, uh, relationship or deal ends with Vox soon, and we're hoping to renew. We love Vox. But we're out there talking to people, and literally every media company in the world wants Kara Swisher and is putting... willing to put up with Scott Galloway as sort of the tariff, if you will-
(laughs) Tariff. Oh, I like that.
... for getting Kara Swisher onboard. And as a means of weeding out, I'm gonna just become so fucking pornographic-
Uh-huh. Okay.
... and vulgar, and we're gonna see who really wants you, Kara.
Really wants who. (laughs) It's true.
Who really, really wants you.
You know, I- I do not mind the pornography. I- you know where I'm going by the way away for the weekend? Miami. Your favorite place.
Oh, uh, I- I can tell you where to go.
Okay. No.
Stay at the Faena. Go have-
We're staying at the Loews.
... dinner at Spero Italia.
Okay, I'll-
You're staying at the Loews?
Well, just tell people. I'm not gonna explain.
Oh, Jesus Christ.
I'm not staying at the... I have children with me. I- I have children. I have the children. Faena is not a children hotel.
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