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Trump’s tech meeting focused on jobs, education, and more
Yesterday’s meeting of the most influential technology leaders and the Trump transition team focused on several topics related to our national economy and its intersection with the technology sector.
YouTube featured a 3-minute or so live stream of Trump’s welcome to his top tier technology guests. The tension was palpable, as many present had not supported a Trump 2016 Presidential bid and now foresee less technology sector spending with Trump in the White House. Moreover, according to Andrew Bartels, a Forrester principal analyst, recent Trump appointments, such as cabinet secretaries, “are explicitly hostile to the mission of their agencies.” With a Trump administration leading the country, Forrester Research has cut back its growth estimate for the U.S. tech market in 2017 to 4.3 percent from 5.1 percent.
The individuals present often held dichotomous views on issues like net neutrality, dissemination of fake news, censorship, and antitrust issues. For example, the president-elect’s vocal stance on immigration, which could limit H1-B skilled worker visas as part of a clampdown on cheaper foreign labor, could create difficulties for companies like Facebook and Microsoft, as a change in their hiring practices would elevate their expenditures and affect their overall profitability.
Conversely, areas of agreement for the group of tech entrepreneurs were corporate tax cuts and repatriation of capital being held abroad, reports CBS News.
One topic at the 90-minute meeting between Trump and the tech CEOs was how to create a U.S. economy with home-grown and high-paying jobs. IBM CEO Ginni Rommety recently wrote an op-ed piece in USA Today discussing their company plans to hire 25,000 people in the U.S. and invest $1 billion over the next four years in “new collar” jobs via employee vocational training. “We are hiring because the nature of work is evolving – and that is also why so many of these jobs remain hard to fill.”
That “evolving” workforce demands new training, which was another important topic of conversation at the Trump tech summit. The U.S. workforce will require employees with skills that are relevant to jobs such as cloud computing technicians and services delivery specialists.
This focus on becoming a reflexive workforce was contained in remarks that Jeff Bezos of Amazon later issued. In a statement, he related how he “shared the view that the administration should make innovation one of its key pillars, which would create a huge number of jobs across the whole country, in all sectors, not just tech — agriculture, infrastructure, manufacturing — everywhere.”
That innovation will be crucial to obtain one Trump administration goal of higher pay across U.S. jobs, as the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that the area of highest job creation at the end of 2015 was home health aides, who earn less than $25,000 per year. That barely exceeds the U.S. poverty level for a family of four.
Those present included Elon Musk; Jeff Bezos of Amazon; Tim Cook of
Apple; Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook; Larry Page and Eric Schmidt of Alphabet, Google’s parent company; and Satya Nadella of Microsoft.
“This is a truly amazing group of people,” the president-elect said in a conciliatory gesture. “There’s nobody like you in the world. In the world! There’s nobody like the people in this room.” The tech leaders smiled politely at the president-elect, recognizing that the tech summit could provide a boost to big-cap technology stocks, which have lagged in an otherwise surprisingly robust post-election rally.
Future Trump administration quarterly meetings with the select tech leaders will be organized by Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner.
The Tesla Semi was spotted mounted with ground truth validation equipment as the company nears its looming launch. The Semi is Tesla’s Class 8 all-electric truck, and has been utilized in its earlier stages by many companies like PepsiCo. and Frito-Lay, who have been using it in a pilot program.
The Semi was spotted in Sunnyvale, California, and sports a typical ground truth validation unit that Tesla routinely uses on its vehicles. Ground truth validation is essentially the process of training supervised algorithms to ensure they can perform reliably. Tesla typically performs this on vehicles that are being released soon:
Spotted the new semi adorned with ground truthing equipment. Haven’t seen anyone post this so figured I’d share.
The future is autonomous!!@SawyerMerritt @wholemars pic.twitter.com/qkPDHPUQZ6
— Danny (@dannywinner1) June 21, 2026
The Semi being spotted with this type of validation rig is important because it means the company is working on solidifying a Full Self-Driving model for its commercial vehicle offering. This would be a massive development for not only Tesla but also the logistics industry as a whole.
There are strict regulations on driving hours for commercial truck drivers, and autonomy is a way to potentially combat these issues. FSD is already a widely effective way that owners of typical passenger vehicles take stress out of travel. Even launching a semi-autonomous platform for truck drivers to use to increase safety, reduce fatigue, and increase productivity would be a huge development.
Tesla Semi gets strange-but-understandable comparison from Jay Leno
The Semi has already proven to be an ideal solution for companies that use commercial logistics. It has increased efficiency and reduced operating costs for many companies that have been able to use it in pilot programs.
There are expected to be some bumps along the way. Tesla saw some challenges with FSD on the Cybertruck, as it had never had a vehicle with cameras at that height, so some of the features with FSD were not immediately available. Just a week ago, Tesla launched Actually Smart Summon (ASS) for Cybertruck, nearly three years after the vehicle was first delivered to customers.
President Donald Trump unveiled an upgraded Boeing 747-8 at Joint Base Andrews on June 19, 2026, describing the Qatar-gifted aircraft as an interim Air Force One equipped with advanced communications systems, including Starlink, Elon Musk’s SpaceX satellite internet service.
The plane, valued at around $400 million and modified for presidential use, serves as a bridge until the delayed VC-25B replacements arrive. Trump highlighted its luxury features and new technology during remarks to service members.
Trump stated:
“We have communication equipment up there that nobody’s ever seen before. It’s the highest level and, uh, including Starlink. My friend Elon is going to be very happy, but, uh, Starlink and we have, uh, four or five different sets of double and triple communications like people haven’t seen.”
He added:
“And it represents what can happen with hard work, innovation, and aggressive timelines because we did this quickly and yet there’s never been communication like is on this plane.”
🚨 President Trump confirmed today that the new Air Force One is equipped with Starlink:
“We have communication equipment up there that nobody’s ever seen before, it’s the highest level and including Starlink…my friend Elon is going to be very happy.” pic.twitter.com/IhkDmtr5hL
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 20, 2026
The aircraft features a redesigned red, white, and blue livery and has been outfitted with Starlink satellite connectivity alongside other secure systems.
Trump praised the plane’s uniqueness, calling it among the world’s most luxurious. The gift from Qatar and subsequent modifications have drawn attention, with the jet positioned as a solution for presidential travel. It is expected to support operations, including potential ceremonial roles such as Fourth of July flyovers.
The event marked the formal introduction of the converted jet, which will help maintain capabilities while the primary Air Force One fleet undergoes modernization. Defense observers note the inclusion of commercial satellite technology like Starlink as part of efforts to ensure resilient communications, crucial to keep the country running as the President is in the sky.
President Trump’s comments underscored appreciation for rapid upgrades and innovation in equipping the aircraft. The plane remains a U.S. government asset and is slated for eventual transfer related to presidential library purposes after its service.
Tesla just gave what is perhaps its biggest signal yet that the launch of the Cybercab, its autonomous ride-hailing-geared car, is imminent.
The Cybercab has been spotted outside of Gigafactory Texas in massive numbers over the past few days, with hundreds of units being stored on property just days after the vehicle received a Certificate of Conformity from the EPA.
Today, things were a bit different.
Cybercabs spotted on Giga Texas property today had an addition: a Cybercab decal on the side, reminiscent of the “Robotaxi” ones that were placed on Model Ys just as the company launched its ride-sharing platform about a year ago.
Giga Texas drone operator Joe Tegtmeyer noticed the change today:
Tesla Cybercabs are now getting “Cybercab” logos on the side of them!
Tesla did the same with Model Ys that were given “Robotaxi” logos: https://t.co/DanANtw1m7 pic.twitter.com/FqOhH0S9Ks
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 19, 2026
Tesla could be signaling that the Cybercab is preparing to enter the Robotaxi fleet in the coming weeks or months with this move. It seems more symbolic than anything; Tesla is ready to throw Cybercabs in the ride-hailing platform just as it did with Model Ys last year.
The addition of the Certificate of Conformity awarded to the Cybercab is another major factor working to Tesla’s advantage. The company now has permission from the EPA to allow the vehicle to operate on public roads and enter the chain of commerce. It’s officially street legal.
Tesla Cybercab specs revealed: range, curb weight, range ratings, and more
The big question that remains is whether Tesla will be able to operate the car without a safety monitor, especially considering it plans to put the car out there without a steering wheel or pedals. With the Cybercab only having a seating capacity of two, it is hard to believe Tesla will even consider putting a Safety Monitor in the car.
It did recently self-certify as Level 4 and has the ability to operate driverless vehicles in the State of Texas under a law that took effect on May 28. You can read more about that here:
Tesla’s Robotaxi dreams just took a massive step toward reality
We’d imagine Cybercabs will be on the roads as soon as July, but August will likely be a better estimate of when the car will be entered into the Cybercab fleet. It all depends at where Tesla is, as they’ve truly prioritized safety with the rollout of the Robotaxi platform.
Tesla Semi spotted with ground truth validation equipment as launch looms
President Trump touts new Air Force One with Musk technology
