Trump’s confusing crusade against Big Tech

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David Pierce is editor-at-large and Vergecast co-host with over a decade of experience covering consumer tech. Previously, at Protocol, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired.

President Trump wanted to ban TikTok. Now he wants to save TikTok. There might even be a plan to save TikTok, though right now it feels more like a “concepts of a plan” situation. Meanwhile, the Trump administration continues to press hard on regulating Big Tech, while also cozying up to their CEOs — and illegally firing some of the regulators. Companies like OpenAI and Google are trying to convince the White House to go along with their vision for AI, but it doesn’t seem anyone knows where they stand.

So what does the Trump administration want to do with Big Tech? On this episode of The Vergecast, we try and figure it out. But first, Nilay and David open with some other tech news. The Siri-sucks-gate fallout continues inside of Apple,

including a fairly important executive shakeup. Pebble smartwatches are back, and poised to be at the center of a fight about how Apple works with watches. Google and Huawei both launched intriguing new phones, and Nvidia remains the white-hot center of the AI industry.

After all that, it’s time for some policy talk. The Verge’s Lauren Feiner joins the show to explain the latest on the TikTok ban, the state of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program, what is happening at the FTC, why Brendan Carr continues to be the way he is, the fight over AI copyright, and much more.

Finally, in the lightning round, the hosts discuss the latest Cybertruck recall, the ongoing drama over Careless People, some small but fun fediverse news, and Netflix’s small but sick burns on Apple TV Plus.

If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started, beginning with Siri and gadgets:

And in politics and policy:

And in the lightning round:

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