Donald Trump whines. That is unattractive in any adult, but it is especially unbecoming in a man who is supposed to be leading this great country. Parents have to turn the TV down when POTUS shows up, because the commander-in-chief is such a bad example and his language is coarse and vile. In his free time, the president called into a talk show to grumble.
Our president often complained that the “tech and social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Google” were victimizing him and other conservatives. This bias was allegedly due to his conservative leanings. Yet, the companies were adamant about remaining unbiased and indicated that politics made no difference in their policies.
Trump phoned CNBC’s Squawk Box complaining about the giant internet companies like Google and Facebook, saying there was “something going on in terms of monopoly.”
When the host asked POTUS about whether companies such as Amazon, Facebook, and Google should have had any concern about the antitrust laws, he replied:
‘I can tell you they discriminate against me. People talk about collusion. The real collusion is between the Democrats and these companies because they were so against me during my election run.’
He continued:
‘Every week you see them going after Facebook, and Apple, and all of these companies that are, you know, great companies. But I will say that the European Union is suing them all the time.’
Trump added:
‘They think there’s a monopoly but I’m not sure that they think that, they just figure this is easy money. We’ll sue Apple for $7 billion and we’ll make a settlement or win the case. So I think it is a bad situation but obviously there is something going on in terms of monopoly.’
Trump pointed to the European Union’s (EU) lawsuits against internet giants Facebook and Apple. He seemed to think that it was the EU’s attempt at making money.
However, the man who occasionally sits in the Oval Office would not say he was considering getting tough against the monopolies. Trump said that the EU was using the courts against the big tech giants. For some reason, the president was coy about whether the Americans would follow its lead. He said:
‘(W)e’re going to look at it differently.’
CNBC’s co-host Joe Kernen questioned the president. He wanted to know whether Trump could set his feelings of unfairness aside and look at whether the monopoly laws needed to be updated. The technology has moved so quickly that the laws have not been able to keep up with them.
Chair of the House Judiciary’s Antitrust subcommittee Representative David Cicilline (D-RI) planned to have hearings and get testimony from these corporations’ top executives. Cicilline would be looking at subpoenaing them for “internal corporate documents. He said during a news conference, according to The New York Times:
‘This is about how do we get competition back in this space.’
Trump’s odd distance from this type of litigation might work in the upcoming investigations. He strongly opposed the merger of AT&T and Warner for personal reasons. AT&T owns CNN, and the president considered CNN one of his enemies. POTUS just said the Department of Justice (DOJ) would handle it.
Ranking member of the Judiciary Committee Representative Doug Collins (R-GA) released a statement about the House investigation:
‘Big tech plays a huge role in our economy and our world. As tech has expanded its market share, more and more questions have arisen about whether the market remains competitive.’
