Not all entrepreneurs and venture capitalists are thrilled with the idea of taking a meeting with President Trump. Take former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, for example, who likens the experience to getting drunk and “waterboard[ing] yourself.”
When word got around that the White House was pulling together a meeting with Silicon Valley technology leaders to discuss emerging trends including commercial drones, the Internet of Things and the funding of those companies, Costolo took to Twitter to shed some light on such a gathering.
“If you don’t get invited to this meeting and want to know what it was like, just drink a bottle of gin and then waterboard yourself,” Costolo wrote.
https://twitter.com/dickc/status/873353133040193536
In December, the then president-elect met with a few tech industry leaders — including Elon Musk (Tesla), Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook) and Eric Schmidt and Larry Page (Alphabet) — to relieve worry they may have had about his incoming administration’s position on H1-B visas. Axios AM has reported that the POTUS has again reached out to Silicon Valley in hopes of creating better digital services for the federal government.
But Costolo shouldn’t worry too much about getting an invitation this time around, considering how freely he voices his opinion of the new president (and his offspring). Take a look:
https://twitter.com/dickc/status/845844219122003968
https://twitter.com/dickc/status/871752486968840193
https://twitter.com/dickc/status/853368344220774401
https://twitter.com/dickc/status/872178677710061568