See What Each of Them Said

Donald Trump is fielding praise from major figures in the United States’ tech industry.

At a White House dinner on the evening of Thursday, Sept. 4, the president hosted a group of top executives from American tech companies — all of whom showered him with words of admiration and gratitude. The gathering of the “high IQ group,” as Trump dubbed them, seemed to be about bolstering tech innovation within the United States.

Notable guests in attendance included Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Google founder Sergey Brin and Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who aggressively campaigned for Trump in 2024 and led his inaugural Department of Government Efficiency earlier in the year, was not present at the event following his fallout with the administration.

Each table setting featured a gold china plate embossed with a photo of the White House, flanked by gold cutlery and a microphone.

Zuckerberg spoke first, praising Trump for assembling the group of executives. He, like most of the CEOs and executives after him, praised Trump’s “leadership” prowess and decision to assemble the group.

“Well, thanks for hosting this. And this is quite a group to get together,” Zuckerberg, 41, said. “And I think you know all the companies here are building huge investments in the country in order to build their data centers and infrastructure to power the next wave of innovation.”

“So the work being done by the people at this table is changing the world,” Gates added afterward. “It’s coming fast, so it’s great we all get to get there and talk about how the U.S. can lead in this key area and apply it — even to the course outside the U.S. — as well as to our great citizens. So thank you for incredible leadership, including getting this group together. Thank you.”

Trump then welcomed Brin to speak. The Google founder attended alongside his partner, Gerelyn Gilbert-Soto, whom Trump hailed as a “really wonderful MAGA girlfriend.” Brin was previously married to Nicole Shanahan, who became Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s running mate during his independent 2024 presidential campaign.

Cook told Trump he appreciated the president’s work in “helping companies around the world,” which he called a “very key, key thing” that he’s enjoyed helping the Trump administration with.

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“I want to thank you for setting the tone such that we could make a major investment in the United States and have some key manufacturing, advanced manufacturing here,” the Apple CEO said. “I think that says a lot about your focus and your leadership and your focus on innovation.”