Dem
47
GOP
53
Donald Trump obviously likes socialism, so he had the government buy a chunk of Intel. After all, what says "socialism" more loudly than the government owning the means of production? His next move was to get his buddy Larry Ellison, cofounder of Oracle, to put together a consortium to buy TikTok. That felt so good, Trump then ordered Microsoft to fire an executive he doesn't like. From memory, we recall that the Republican Party once was the party of free markets. Back in the day, companies answered to their stockholders and customers, not to politicians. Apparently the free market works differently these days.
Specifically, Trump is demanding that Microsoft fire Lisa Monaco, the former deputy attorney general during the Biden administration. She supervised the prosecution in his classified-documents-in-the-bathroom case. This is simply retribution. He couldn't care less about Microsoft and who its executives are. He is preemptively accusing her of mishandling sensitive documents as president of Microsoft's Global Affairs unit. In March, Trump started going after her by rescinding her security clearance.
Trump does have some leverage with Microsoft. He said of Monaco: "She is a menace to U.S. National Security, especially given the major contracts that Microsoft has with the United States Government." Hint, Hint, Microsoft: "You have many government contracts that could be canceled on a whim if you do not obey me." Depending on what the contracts are for, that could be a real threat or a bluff. Contracts to write new software could conceivably be given to Oracle, which can also produce software. However, ending contracts that authorize the government to use Windows or Microsoft Office would be extremely disruptive. It would take months and a major, major effort to switch tens of thousands of government computers to Linux and Apache OpenOffice, LibreOffice, or Google Docs. It will be interesting to see whether Microsoft, a consumer-facing company, responds to the blackmail. It is definitely sensitive to boycotts since there are good (and free) alternatives to many of its products. (V)