While it will hardly generate as much excitement as Kanye West's unexpected arrival at the Trump Tower, moments ago Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon and the Washington Post, a man many consider Trump's nemesis based on their "colored" past and Bezos' recent statement that Trump is 'eroding our democracy aroun the edges', arrived at Trump's 5th Avenue headquarters.
As a reminder, Trump is sitting down with top tech executives, including several of his sharpest critics, to mend fences after a divisive election in which virtually all of Silicon Valley backed Hillary Clinton.
The afternoon summit is set to begin at about 2:00 pm.
Washington is still buzzing over Trump's nomination of ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson to be his secretary of state, with concerns about the oilman's ties to Moscow riling some amid allegations of Russian interference in the November 8 election. Against that background, Trump is heading into hostile territory -- with the exception of PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, Silicon Valley shunned the New York billionaire during the presidential campaign, throwing their weight behind his Democratic rival Clinton.
The tech talks, convened by Trump, will bring together CEOs Tim Cook of Apple, Satya Nadella of Microsoft, Larry Page of Alphabet (Google) and Brian Krzanich of Intel, a Trump transition spokesman told reporters. In addition to Bezos, also on the guest list are Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, Facebook's chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg and Oracle chief executive Safra Catz. Vice President-elect Mike Pence will also attend, transition officials said.
One major absence will be that of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, despite the fact that the billionaire-turned-president-elect uses the social network as a major means of getting out his message.
Bezos has been the target of the Manhattan real estate tycoon's ire, for allegedly using The Washington Post to secure tax benefits for Amazon, and to attack the Republican. Bezos responded by offering Trump a trip into space, on a rocket operated by his Blue Origin space flight company.
Late last month, a group of 17 tech associations offered to work with Trump while calling for policies to "foster growth and innovation."
Will Bezos kiss the ring, or will the feud between the two ego titans escalate after today's meeting? Find out shortly after Yellen hikes rates by 25 basis points.
