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Big Tech and Trump allies distance themselves after Democrats' midterm sweep

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Summary

  • After Democrats swept the November 3, 2026 midterms, billionaires, corporations, podcasters, and media figures who backed Donald Trump are publicly distancing themselves.
  • Elon Musk deleted his 'Vote red today!' tweet, Kalshi cut ties with Donald Trump Jr., and Meta parted with Republican operative Joel Kaplan.
  • Palantir chief Alex Karp called himself a lifelong Democrat, while Sam Altman and other tech leaders have gone quiet since election night.
  • Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigned on November 12 over affair allegations, and White House officials reportedly discussed ousting Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
  • Democratic senators demanded Musk preserve Starlink-Ukraine documents, and records requests went to Nvidia and Amazon ahead of 2027 investigations.
  • Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg sat front row at Trump's January 2025 inauguration; Musk spent nearly $500 million on the midterms.

Reactions

  • Joe Rogan, who backed Trump in 2024, said Trump lost not just the 'podcast bros' but most of the country, citing the Iran war and immigration enforcement.
  • A MeidasTouch commentator argued Fox News is turning against Trump and is already promoting Marco Rubio for 2028.
  • Andrew Schulz called Trump's second term 'the greatest failure of a president of our lifetime'; Matt Walsh declared 'the Trump chapter is finished.'
  • Senator Ed Markey said tech companies will need 'new forests for all of the subpoenas we'll be printing.'
  • Senator Elizabeth Warren urged Congress to pass the AI Overwatch Act to keep advanced American AI out of China's hands.
  • Nvidia stock closed down 4.34% at $166.19 on November 12, the day Jensen Huang resigned.

Related

Timeline newest first

  1. Marco Rubio delivered a Federalist Society national lawyers convention speech on November 14, with Fox News posts framing it as a possible prelude to a 2028 presidential run.
  2. An analysis of 70,000 hours of podcast programming, published before the midterms, found mentions of Donald Trump on conservative podcasts had fallen 70 percent from the 2024 run-up.
  3. In the week of November 14, prediction market company Kalshi cut ties with adviser Donald Trump Jr., citing a business conflict over his venture firm's investment in rival Polymarket.
  4. Palantir chief Alex Karp described himself as 'progressive' eight times in a single interview in the week of November 14.
  5. Democratic Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Chris Coons wrote to Elon Musk on November 13 demanding he preserve all documents on Starlink service in Ukraine by November 30.
  6. Elon Musk deleted his election-day 'Vote red today!' tweet hours after the November 3 midterms made clear Republicans were headed for a historic wipeout.
  7. President Donald Trump took no action when briefed on Jensen Huang's connection to a possible Chinese spy and later urged Huang to stay on as Nvidia CEO amid the scandal.
  8. The Federalist Society held its annual lawyers convention at Washington's Mayflower Hotel the week after the midterms, with attendees looking toward 2028 and some speaking favorably of Marco Rubio.
  9. Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee vowed to make SpaceX's Starlink role in the Ukraine war a key issue when the new Congress is seated in January 2027.
  10. Nvidia announced on November 12 that Jensen Huang had resigned as president, CEO, and director; CFO Colette Kress became interim CEO and the board opened an independent review.
  11. People familiar with the matter reported on November 12 that senior White House officials discussed whether Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick should be pushed out over the Nvidia scandal.
  12. A White House official said Donald Trump 'maintains complete confidence' in Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
  13. Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott asked Jensen Huang to testify on December 3 and Howard Lutnick on December 10; neither hearing was scheduled and Lutnick had not agreed.
  14. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chris Coons asked the administration to preserve all documents on Nvidia's AI chip exports to China.
  15. Five weeks before the midterms, tech leaders including Sam Altman and Elon Musk gathered at the White House to photograph with Donald Trump and sign on to his 'Super Intelligence' agenda.
  16. Tech employees at OpenAI, Meta, and other firms reported silence from their leaders since the midterm results, and Mark Zuckerberg had yet to address them internally.
  17. 46 of 47 ballot measures relating to datacenters were defeated in the November 3 midterms.
  18. By the Thursday morning after the midterms, markets had responded with a sell-off of tech stocks.
  19. In Texas, Gina Hinojosa defeated Republican incumbent Greg Abbott for governor after promising an immediate moratorium on datacenter development, despite being outspent nearly eight to one.
  20. Jason Reding Quinones, the Florida US attorney leading an uncharged 'grand conspiracy' inquiry into Donald Trump's rivals, announced he is leaving the Justice Department.
  21. John Eisenberg, who led the Justice Department's national security division, is leaving the department days after the Democratic midterm wins.
  22. Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, submitted her resignation on November 5, two days after Democrats won both chambers.
  23. In the November 3 midterms Democrats took decisive control of Congress and won governors' mansions including Texas, amid anger over tech, AI datacenters, and the super rich.
  24. Letters to preserve records for future investigations had already gone out to Nvidia and Amazon.
  25. Senator-elect Sherrod Brown flipped a Senate seat in Ohio while campaigning against datacenter construction.
  26. Elon Musk poured $474 million into the midterm elections, including $224 million in Texas alone.
  27. Democratic governor wins in Texas, Georgia, and Michigan put as much as 45 percent of planned US datacenter capacity at risk.

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