After their much-publicized meeting with President-elect Donald Trump last month, many prominent figures in tech appear to be circling back to Trump Tower. Eric Schmidt is the latest to be spotted at Trump’s Manhattan outpost, stopping by a few hours after AT&T’s Randall Stephenson met with Trump.
https://twitter.com/ericengleman/status/819622091712561153
Alphabet exec chai Eric Schmidt just now on #elevatorcam pic.twitter.com/xy5t2mJ9kz
— Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) January 12, 2017
https://twitter.com/TonyRomm/status/819618161423220736
Around the time of his visit, Schmidt, a former close Hillary Clinton supporter, tweeted his approval of Trump’s choice for Goldman Sachs exec Dina Powell in a senior role.
Trump's appointment of Dina Powell as Assistant to POTUS & Sr. Counselor is a brilliant & inspired choice. I've always been impressed by her
— Eric Schmidt (@ericschmidt) January 12, 2017
Schmidt and Stephenson aren’t the only tech execs making the pilgrimage to White House North. In early January, Tesla’s Elon Musk was spotted there, where he reportedly met with Steve Bannon, likely the most controversial member of the President-elect’s inner circle. Earlier this week, Alibaba founder Jack Ma popped up at Trump Tower, declaring a plan to create 1 million U.S. jobs that echoed of Trump’s meeting with SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son late last month.
TechCrunch has reached out to Google/Alphabet for comment on the nature of Schmidt’s meeting and will update if we hear back. Schmidt is also the chairman of the Department of Defense’s Innovation Advisory Board.