Donald Trump’s victory may have surprised many people, but its immediate side effects have been all too predictable: racist attacks across the country coming from Trump voters that now feel legitimized, protests by those who feel he is not their president or the belief of some that the election was a robbery and a rape, along with a proposal that California, the world’s sixth-largest economy, secede from the union.
Such reactions are not particularly surprising bearing in mind the profile of the man who, unless somebody does something about it, will become the 45th president of the United States in January. The technology industry, with the exception of Peter Thiel, made its rejection of Trump during the election campaign very clear. It now faces a president who glorifies the traditional economy, openly disdains the contribution to the US economy of technology companies that under the Obama administration have became the jewel in the crown, and who has promised sanctions and antitrust legislation, along with boycotting Apple for not allowing the FBI into its iPhone (he now uses a Samsung). Then there are his plans to do away with the visa program for immigrants with technology skills, impose tariff barriers on imports of products manufactured in southeast Asia, and even kill net neutrality. The only exception to the catastrophe comes from a promised tax rebate on repatriation of profits…
