Tech turns its back on Trump — except for a few
SAN FRANCISCO — It may be more elusive than a freshly minted Silicon Valley unicorn: a tech executive who openly supports Donald Trump.
Yet they exist, a minority in an industry that's swiftly distanced itself from the Republican presidential candidate, whose views on immigration and trade clash with their own.
These contrarians support Trump's risk-taking, pro-business mien and oppose expanding the H-1B work permit visa program, which allows U.S. companies to employ foreign workers in STEM fields.
"I like when business people run for president," says John Rampton, CEO of Due, a financial-advice platform for small business owners based in Menlo Park, Calif. He's donated to the Trump campaign because Trump "speaks his mind and doesn't care what people think. That is how you effect change."
It's not the most popular stance in the valley where, Rampton says, "once a day, I'm asked to F-myself for wearing a 'Make America Great Again' cap."
Silicon Valley has tended to lean Democratic. But even those executives who supported Trump's GOP rivals have shifted their allegiance to Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton. Her campaign has drawn the lion's shares of donations.
Meanwhile, some big tech companies (Apple, HP Inc.) have quietly withdrawn support for Monday's Republican convention. Dozens of other founders, executives and entrepreneurs last week slammed Trump as "anti-innovation" and took aim at his rhetoric, which they wrote "traffics in ethnic and racial stereotypes, repeatedly insults women, and is openly hostile to immigration."
Airbnb CEO: Trump on wrong side of history
Aside from venture capitalist Peter Thiel, tech is likely to be a no-show in terms of personalities when the Republican National Convention gets underway in Cleveland.
Former HP CEO Carly Fiorina, who sought the Republican nomination this year and later stumped for Trump, is not included on the RNC speakers list. Current Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman has voiced strong opposition to Trump.
This absence reflect a deep displeasure with Trump's campaign-trail comments at a time when Silicon Valley says it's attempting to diversify its workforce behind a composition that's more white and male than other industries — despite its increasingly multi-ethnic customer base and ambitions around the globe.
Trump further inflamed acrimony with tweets targeting Apple and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. A Trump spokesperson also slammed Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Tech execs blast Trump as anti-innovation - except not Peter Thiel
None of this apparently matters to Thiel. The early investor in Facebook is slated to speak in Trump's favor at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. The tech mogul aims to have an honest conversation about the country's problems at the convention, he said in a statement to USA TODAY.
"Many people are uncertain in this election year, but most Americans agree that our country is on the wrong track," Thiel said in the statement.
Scott Slinker, CEO of analytics start-up Paradata, has said the presumptive Republican nominee could be more of a fit in Silicon Valley than he gets credit for. Slinker told The New York Times Trump has plenty of ideas and pivots from them if they don't work, a familiar tactic for start-ups.
"He's more viral than Facebook ever was," Slinker told the newspaper.
Trump's immigration policy, which includes building a wall with Mexico and has floated a ban on Muslim immigrants, has struck a discordant chord with the tech community on multiple levels. The industry has many employees born in countries outside the U.S., particularly India, and several of its seminal companies — Google and Yahoo, to name two — were co-founded by immigrants.
But the real estate mogul's hard-line immigration views resonate with some business execs.
Jan Soule, president of Silicon Valley Association of Republican Women, objects to H-1B visa workers who, she claims, are hired by tech companies to “replace Americans” who should have the same jobs.
Smaller tech businesses looking to create jobs for U.S. workers could be Trump's largest supporters in technology, said Paolo Tiramani, CEO of intellectual property investment and development company 500 Group, based in Connecticut.
Tiramani said tech titans such as Facebook, Google and Apple, are more likely to support candidates who favor H-1B worker visas. Clinton has voiced approval for the policy option in the past.
Trump's minimal support in Silicon Valley, particularly among the big company CEOs, contrasts with support for Sen. Marco Rubio, Fla., a Trump rival who dropped out of the race in March. He was backed by Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison ($4 million). Elon Musk, the visionary behind Tesla Motors and SpaceX, previously contributed to Rubio's Senate campaign.
Since then, Ellison has not commented on Trump and Musk has given to the Clinton campaign. Even Thiel poured $2 million into former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina's bid for the Republican presidential nomination.
Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, speaking at Fortune's Brainstorm Conference in Aspen, Colo., on Tuesday, said he canceled a June event for Trump at his Silicon Valley home because it had morphed from a summit on ideas to a fundraiser. “I do not intend to endorse any Presidential candidate,” the CEO tweeted on June 2.
A LOPSIDED EDGE FOR CLINTON
Trump hasn't made any overtures to Silicon Valley — a contrast with Clinton, who delivered an ambitious plan that reads like a wish list for the industry. Among her Utopian goals: to make high-speed internet access available to everyone in the U.S. by 2020.
"We are excited that one of the candidates laid out a tech and innovation plan," says Linda Moore, CEO of TechNet, a bipartisan organization that represents about 70 tech companies, including Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon, Uber and Microsoft. TechNet has contacted the Trump campaign about its tech policy, but has yet to hear from it, Moore says.
Follow San Francisco bureau chief at @jswartz.