T he White House dinner on September 4, 2025, where Apple CEO Tim Cook publicly praised President Donald Trump for “setting the tone” enabling major domestic investment, should not be mistaken for a simple gesture of goodwill or corporate diplomacy. Beneath the polished optics lies a deliberate, calculated strategy to reconfigure the relationship between the U.S. government and the country’s leading technology firms.

Under the guise of industrial policy and national interest, the Trump administration is steadily converting Silicon Valley into an instrument of political leverage. Corporate independence long considered a cornerstone of innovation, competition, and market dynamism is being systematically hollowed out, replaced with conditional compliance to the whims of an administration t

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