Trump invites Big Tech giants to dinner at the White House and excludes Elon Musk

President Donald Trump received, on Thursday night, some of the main executives in the technology sector at a dinner held at the newly remedied Rose Jardim of the White House. The meeting brought together names such as Mark Zuckerberg (Meta), Tim Cook (Apple), Bill Gates (Microsoft), Sunda Pichai (Google), Sam Altman (OpenAi), as well as representatives of IBM, Oracle and Blue Origin. The absence of Elon Musk, however, drew attention. Former ally of Trump and former head of the Government Efficiency Department (Doge), Musk was not among the guests, confirmed sources of the government.

Shortly thereafter, Musk tried to minimize the exclusion, stating in his network X that “he was invited, but unfortunately he could not attend” and that he would have sent a representative in his place. Trump, however, has not missed the opportunity to provoke by describing the billionaire as “80% supergen and 20% with problems” and suggesting that Musk will only be really “great” when solving these “20%”. The tension between the two has been accumulating since last year, when Musk criticized government legislative proposals, leading to a change of public barbs that transformed political disagreements into personal conflict.

The dinner, which also preceded a meeting of the Artificial Intelligence Education Force coordinated by First Lady Melania Trump, reinforces the president’s attempt to strengthen relations with large technology corporations, albeit in an environment marked by power disputes and favoritism. The absence of Musk, in turn, symbolizes both the rupture with Trump and the way Big Techs, despite criticism of the government, are still willing to dialogue with the White House to protect their strategic interests. Outside the reception, Tesla is still valued at Wall Street, driven by news on the robo-taxi program, which shows that even without chair at the table, Musk still maintains relevance in the sector.