“President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address Tuesday covered a wide range of issues, from the economy to criminal justice and immigration to drug prices,” Monica Nickelsburg reports for GeekWire. “But he rarely referenced the tech industry despite a series of high-profile scandals, breaches, and controversies that have thrust Big Tech into the national political discourse over the past year.”
“There was speculation that Trump might bring up his often-cited grievances with the tech industry or even include a mention of broadband access when discussing his infrastructure agenda. The closest Trump came to a tech industry issue, however, was the U.S. trade war with China,” Nickelsburg reports. “‘We are now making it clear to China that after years of targeting our industries and stealing our intellectual property, the theft of American jobs and wealth has come to an end,’ Trump said. He added, ‘we recently imposed tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese goods and now our Treasury is receiving billions and billions of dollars.'”
“Trump also touched on the Republican tax overhaul passed in 2017, which was financially backed by many in the tech industry,” Nickelsburg reports. “But Trump’s speech did not cover data privacy, net neutrality, or other major tech industry issues that have made headlines over the past year…”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: It’s likely that the lack of mention of privacy issues was as disappointing to Apple CEO Tim Cook as the talk of mitigating intellectual property theft by China was heartening.
SEE ALSO:
Another Chinese national accused of stealing Apple autonomous vehicle trade secrets – January 30, 2019
Apple CEO Cook calls for U.S. Congress to pass comprehensive federal privacy legislation in TIME op-ed – January 17, 2019
Apple CEO Cook promotes privacy as ‘fundamental human right’ via tweetstorm; asks ‘What kind of world do we want to live in?’ – October 24, 2018
Former Apple employee pleads not guilty in trade secret case – July 17, 2018
Former Apple engineer faces up to 10 years in jail, $250,000 fine over the theft of autonomous vehicle secrets – July 11, 2018
Criminal case reveals details of Apple’s self-driving car technology – July 11, 2018
China’s XMotors claims employee did not pass along Apple autonomous driving trade secrets – July 11, 2018
Former Apple employee charged with criminal theft of autonomous vehicle secrets – July 10, 2018
He mostly successfully read someone else’s words from a teleprompter. Earlier in the day at a luncheon he revealed his true character yet again. I don’t even disagree with some of what he’s done. Happy about the low unemployment, and the strength of the economy. I’m all for better border security and even a wall in some areas. No problem. But none of that changes the fact that the man is basically a dishonest pig. Wrong is wrong. No amount of happy thoughts will change his past behavior. His days are numbered.
Dems and Repubs are all LIARS. At least Trump says what he thinks. Our government is mostly trash. Period.
Saying what you think is NOT always a good idea. Hitler said what he thinks. Your ex-wife said what she thinks. How did that go?
The curse of very low expectations.
@pr
Well said my friend, well said. Some things are good but so many are bad, namely his extreme dishonesty. The rest of the world looks at Americans through the quality of their leader as we all do with other countries. I am quite sure that this is NOT how you want to be presented to the world. To paraphrase one democratic nominee…You are better than this…
How about iMAGA smart caps with LED and Holographic imaging? That should get Trump in their corner?
Interesting how this fool thinks the biggest existential threat to the US is refugees that he intentionally recasts as gangs. He cited the name of one gang that was founded in LA by American-born criminals. And of course he cites the total number of immigrants that overstay their visas and were deported (just like they were in all previous administrations) rather than reporting the actual number of people who illegally crossed the border.
The state of the union as reported by Trump sounded like he is a paranoid idiot afraid of everything out there in the big bad world. His vision for the future is to isolate the US. I remember when the US was looked upon as a friend, willing to help all nations improve their condition, and ready to smite evildoers like Russia. Trump didn’t even bother to mention Russia, which clearly is engaging in cyber warfare against the US and other democratic nations. THAT is one of the big threats to resolve.
My relatives in El Paso were appalled at the lies about their community in the SOTU.
First, The President claimed that they used to be riddled with crime. That has never been true; El Paso has been one of the safest cities in America for decades. Then he claimed that the El Paso Sector Wall had reduced the crime rate, when it actually went UP by 17%. Illegal entries also went up.
The explanation for that is that Customs and Border Protection reduced the number of local agents because it was forced to shift money to building and maintaining the Wall. It is a perfect illustration that there are better and more efficient ways to secure our borders than a solution from medieval China.
The President’s misstatement was not an ignorant mistake. He has said the same thing before and has been shown the truth. It was a deliberate lie from somebody who simply does not value the truth when it does not further his agenda. It illustrates his preference for trusting his “gut” over solid intelligence.
The truth is that immigrants (particularly legal immigrants) have a much lower crime rate than native-born Americans. The cities along the border with the highest proportion of immigrants (about 25% in San Diego and even higher along the Texas border) consistently enjoy the lowest violent crime rates of comparably-sized cities anywhere in the country.
I would say that if America has abandoned the use of fact-based policymaking, the state of the Union is bad.