Publications
Partners
Johannesburg - US president-elect Donald Trump has been criticised for having his children seated at a high-level meeting with the world's top technology executives on Wednesday.
Bloomberg reported that technology industry leaders - including Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos - met with Donald Trump, seeking to persuade a man whose presidential bid many of them opposed to avoid policies they believe would hurt their companies.
READ: Elon Musk to attend Trump's 'tech summit'
However, news that Trump’s children sat in on the meeting spread on social media and drew criticism about the president-elect and their presence.
@minefield101 tweeted: “How can Trump's kids run his business and yet be privy to presidential meetings...... damn corrupt!!”
Elizabeth Shepardson tweeted: “Why are Trump's children allowed in these meetings? I resent this and I don't understand why it is allowed.”
@joejackson tweeted: “ WHY ARE TRUMP'S KIDS IN ALL THESE MEETINGS!!?? If they're gonna run his "beautiful company" as #TRUMP says, there's no justification for it”
Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Eric Trump were all present at the meeting.
Shortly after the meeting began Christina Wilkie, White House Correspondent at The Huffington Post tweeted a photo of the siblings in the meeting.
Look who’s sitting at the head of the table in Trump’s official meeting with tech CEO’s: Don Jr., Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump. pic.twitter.com/xUYo3QL0g7
— Christina Wilkie (@christinawilkie) December 14, 2016
The meeting also included Google parent Alphabet’s Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Cisco Systems CEO Chuck Robbins, Apple’s Tim Cook, Palantir Technologies CEO Alex Karp and IBM CEO Ginni Rometty.
Rometty also serves on a panel of CEOs advising Trump on business and economic matters.
Bezos is Amazon’s CEO; Sandberg is Facebook’s chief operating officer.
READ: Trump victory: US tech industry reacts with dismay
Before Wednesday’s meeting, some technologists debated whether invitees should even attend.
A few top industry executives that were invited, including Uber Technologies’ Travis Kalanick and Airbnb’s Brian Chesky, didn’t go.
Both companies said their CEOs had conflicting travel.
Trump announced on Wednesday that Kalanick and Elon Musk would both join Rometty on his advisory panel, the President’s Strategic and Policy Forum.
During the meeting Trump was reported to have told the executives: “I’m here to help you folks do well,” as it began.
Read Fin24's top stories trending on Twitter:
