On Wednesday, President-elect Donald Trump hosted top tech leaders at Trump tower to discuss his administration’s commitment to working with leaders in the industry during his presidency.
But though this seemed like a quasi-presidential thing to do, a petty action by Trump reminds us all that our White House is soon to be ruled by a thin-skinned demagogue.
Though representatives from the world’s largest social media platforms were in attendance, Twitter was noticeably absent. Considering how often Trump uses Twitter for his ill-advised and security-compromising rants at 3 a.m., this comes as a surprise.
But as it turns out, an executive for Twitter was barred from the event because the platform had once refused to make a “Crooked Hillary” emoji at the request of the Trump campaign.
Seriously? Seriously.
Apparently, this feud was the result of intervention from Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey who prevented a $5 million deal going through which would have created an emoji which showed bags of money being stolen in replacement for the hashtag #CrookedHillary.
According to the Trump campaign, Dorsey was using his platform in order to set a political agenda – despite the fact that Trump benefits from the platform than anyone else probably ever.
But giving him a vocal platform to shout his insane ramblings is apparently not enough to earn a seat at the table. Methinks Dorsey and Twitter did not lose out by not kissing Trump’s ring alongside the rest of the tech royalty.
