As tech CEOs splashed out at private parties and crypto balls in Washington, D.C., to celebrate the second inauguration of President Donald Trump, the industry’s rank and file converged in a drafty workshop in SoMa to eat Krusteaz pancakes and drink champagne out of paper cups.
About 20 tech workers, startup founders and venture investors attended Monday’s “Transfer of Power and Pancakes” event at the headquarters of General Litihum, a nonprofit makerspace that hosts workshops on robotics and AI. For the inauguration, it turned into an ad-hoc party venue, with the swearing-in ceremony playing on a widescreen TV as co-founder Justin Zelaya cooked pancakes on a portable griddle.
“We’re here to celebrate the transfer of power,” said Zelaya, sporting a batter-stained button-down and a MAGA hat emblazoned with pictures of Trump surviving an assassination attempt.
His friend, who introduced himself only as Bobby G, explained the event’s purpose more bluntly: “Justin really loves Trump,” he said.
The party — the only Trump-friendly inauguration event in the city other than the official GOP watch party, according to Zelaya — was emblematic of a broader cultural shift in San Francisco: Between 2020 and 2024, the liberal bastion moved more than 7 points toward Trump.
Zelaya excitedly listed off a string of business owners nearby who’d spotted him in his MAGA hat and told him they, too, supported Trump: The corner store down the street, the cafe on the corner, the diner a few blocks over. “It’s not just tech people,” he said. “It’s small business owners who are sick of their business being overrun by fentanyl addicts and crazies.”
But no industry has been more obvious in its rightward lurch than tech. While the CEOs of major corporations largely boycotted Trump’s last inauguration — some even participated in protests against him — the industry’s upper echelon turned out in droves for the inauguration weekend, with billionaires like Peter Thiel, Mark Zuckerberg, and David Sacks hosting celebratory events.
Perhaps the president’s biggest backer is Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk, who has been given his own government initiative to run, and who scored prime seats to Trump’s inaugural address. When the president-elect mentioned planting an American flag on Mars in his speech, even the attendees at General Lithium had to laugh. “Do you think Elon wrote that line for him?” one observer whispered.
Much of the discussion at the event — when it wasn’t about how to use the laser cutters and 3D printers scattered throughout the room — revolved around the attendees’ hope and optimism for the new administration. General Lithium cofounder Tony Loehr explained the tech world’s embrace of Trump simply: After years of post-pandemic malaise, people simply wanted to feel good again. “We’re almost over cynicism,” Loehr said. “We’ve had so much cynicism and so much nihilism, it almost doesn’t mean anything anymore.”
Jacob Rafati, the founder of an AI startup, said he’d moved to the United States 11 years ago to pursue a Ph.D. in artificial intelligence. While he’d been a Democrat at the start, he changed his tune after what he called “the post-Covid disaster of the economy.”
“[The Democrats] seem cool and nice and ethical, but I don’t think they have any idea how capitalism works,” he said. “The last four years, I didn’t feel like I could pursue my American dream.” Now, he added, “This new wave of hope is everywhere. You can breathe it.”
Others were excited about the social changes they felt Trump would help usher in. Shane, a startup founder who asked not to be identified by his full name, said the country had descended into “idiocracy” on issues like immigration and trans rights. (“If you look at other countries, they’re laughing at us,” he said.) He didn’t particularly like Trump personally, lamenting that the president was “normalizing being an asshole,” but added: “There’s hard truths that need to be said … The system needed shakeups. Even if it causes pain.”
Largely unspoken was the fact that Trump, if he holds to his campaign trail promises to embrace tech companies and strip regulations, could be highly beneficial for the kind of entrepreneur gathered in the room. Brandon Broussard, the founder of a Web 3 investment analysis company, put it candidly: For people in the crypto space, he said, “None of us want regulation, and none of us want more taxes on the money we’re finally allowed to make.”
Still, not everyone was thrilled about the incoming administration. Anna Hollinsworth, Loehr’s partner and General Lithium’s third cofounder, seemed at times uncomfortable. She described herself emphatically as “not a Trump supporter” and said she was worried about the violence and division that his administration might embrace.
Still, it was clear that Hollinsworth was trying to acclimate herself to the political 180 undertaken by the tech community — her community. “Instead of being a doomer about it, I’m going to be positive because I can’t control what other people think,” she said. “Even if this isn’t what I wanted, I still have to accept it.”
Later, however, she questioned even that.
“You want people to support the person in power. That’s better for society,” she said. “But the person who’s in power now — I don’t know if I can endorse him.”