Team Trump tech roll call

Think it over. UPI was launched in 2016 and has taken the world by storm. The equivalent US FedNow was launched much later in 2023. Most of America’s voting is done on paper and may take more than a month to count. India’s EVMs are done in a day. EVMs were first introduced in the 1980s and are exported to neighbouring Nepal and Bhutan, along with Kenya and Namibia in Africa.

The US has nothing like the Aadhaar ecosystem. The JAM (Jan Dhan Aadhaar Mobile) trinity has made every Indian a part of the digital world. While Silicon Valley is miles ahead of Tech India, the Indian government is miles ahead of its US counterpart. But that may change somewhat with Trump’s techie administration.

Elon Musk: He is one man that may make the Trump administration go full techie. He has transformed many industries and companies with tech. There’s nothing to suggest that he won’t be able to make the government better. He fully has Trump’s ear and will head the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Vivek Ramaswamy: He is a biotech specialist and founded Roviant Sciences which applied tech to drug development and focused on HealthTech. They launched the data management company Datavant, specializing in health information tech. Vivek will head the DOGE along with Musk.

David Sacks: Part of the PayPal Mafia (he was COO), he founded a couple of startups. He is the Crypto and AI Czar. The government may finally embrace new age technologies.

Sriram Krishnan: Worked as general partner at VC firm Andreessen Horowitz. He will be Senior Policy Advisor for AI at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Doug Burgum: President of Great Plains Software, it was acquired by Microsoft. He became head of Microsoft Business solutions. He was Chairman of Atlassian. He will be Secretary of the Interior.

Paul S. Atkins: He is Co-Chair of the Token Alliance, a cryptocurrency lobbying group for the Chamber of Digital Commerce. He will head the Securities and Exchange Commission. Another strong supporter of cryptocurrencies is Howard Lutnick, who will be Secretary of Commerce.

Chris Wright: An alumnus of MIT, he is on the board of Oklo Inc, an advanced nuclear technology firm. (Its chairman is Sam Altman, co-founder of OpenAI) Wright will be Secretary of Energy.

The Prez & VP

In 2021 Trump launched the Trump Media & Technology Group Corp which founded the social media platform Truth Social. While the venture did not do well, how many heads of state can boast of starting a tech-social media company? In some ways he was briefly like a startup founder. 

Vice President JD Vance elect has had a varied career being in the marine corps, a law clerk and a cashier at a grocery store. He became a Senator in 2024. But he was once a VC. He co-founded the VC firm Narya Capital and invested in companies like Rumble, an online video platform.

Tech America is showing great promise.