Skip to main content

Report: Larry Page, other tech execs attended secret meeting to discuss how to stop Donald Trump

Screen Shot 2016-03-07 at 9.07.15 PM

Update: Elon Musk said in a tweet today that the American Enterprise Institute meeting was not secretive and that he was not there to talk about Trump.

According to a report from the Huffington Post, Google co-founder Larry Page was among a handful of tech CEOs and Republican establishment members who recently met at the American Enterprise Institute’s World Forum to discuss how to best stop Donald Trump.

According to the report, the meeting took place off the coast of Georgia at a private island resort and included View, Larry Page, Sean Parker, and Elon Musk. Other establishment attendees included Mitch McConnell, Karl Rove, House Speaker Paul Ryan, Tom Cotton, Cory Gardner, Tim Scott, Rob Portman, and Ben Sasse.

The event was closed to the press, so exact details aren’t entirely clear, but the report says that the “main topic” was stopping Donald Trump from getting the Republican nomination. How Trump even ended up as the front-runner was also a topic of discussion, the report claims.

Karl Rove gave a presentation at the event during which he discussed the weaknesses of Trump, the primary of which, he claimed, is that voters “have a very hard time envisioning him as presidential.”

While Trump was the center point of the event, Apple’s battle with the FBI over encryption was also brought up. The report says that Republican senator Tom Cotton from Arkansas shared words with Tim Cook over Apple’s refusal to cooperate with a court order asking it to unlock the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino gunmen. Cotton was reportedly “pretty harsh on Cook,” so much so that everyone else was left feeling rather uncomfortable by the hostility. Google was among a handful of tech companies to file briefs in support of Apple.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

You’re reading 9to5Google — experts who break news about Google and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Google on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Comments

Author

Avatar for Chance Miller Chance Miller

Email: Chance@9to5mac.com

Chance currently writes for both 9to5Google and 9to5Mac, in addition to 9to5Toys.