Big Tech backs Biden's Day 1 immigration, climate executive orders
New president's policies on energy, immigration reform, COVID-19 are in stark contrast to Trump's policies
Big Tech came together Wednesday to cheer President Biden's inauguration and his first executive orders as the 46th president of the United States.
A number of tech leaders who had been critical of former President Donald Trump's policies expressed support for the new president's moves to loosen immigration restrictions and reenter the Obama-era Paris Climate Agreement.
"I look forward to working with President @JoeBiden and Vice President @KamalaHarris to tackle some of our toughest challenges like COVID-19 and climate change," Microsoft founder Bill Gates tweeted Wednesday. "This has been a troubling time in America, but I see promise in the months and years ahead."
Gates went on to express optimism in slowing the spread of COVID-19 under a new administration as vaccines continue to be doled out, Biden's "commitment to reengage with the world" and rejoining the Paris climate accord "to lead the world in avoiding a climate disaster."
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Apple CEO Tim Cook, widely seen as more willing than others to work with Trump on U.S. manufacturing, similarly expressed optimism in tackling "climate change, immigration and COVID-19" under a Biden administration in a Wednesday tweet.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai applauded the president's "quick action on COVID relief, the Paris Climate Accord, and immigration reform" in a Wednesday tweet.
"Google has supported action on these important issues [and] we look forward to working with the new administration to help the U.S. recover from the pandemic [and] grow our economy," he said.
Amazon Worldwide Consumer CEO David Clark on Wednesday pledged to help the Biden administration vaccinate 100 million Americans in its first 100 days in office.
The Business Roundtable, a nonprofit coalition of U.S. CEOs including Cook, who chairs the coalition, also released a Wednesday statement praising Biden's promise of immigration reform authored by Cook.
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Other members of the coalition include Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Intel's Bob Swan, Microsoft's Satya Nadella, Netflix's Ted Sarandos, PayPal's Dan Schulman and Slack's Stewart Butterfield.
"In the weeks and months to come, business leaders look forward to working with the Administration, as well as Democrats and Republicans in Congress, to achieve bipartisan, practical and comprehensive solutions to fix our broken immigration system, including a permanent solution for Dreamers that includes a path to citizenship," Cook wrote.
Microsoft President Brad Smith praised Biden's stances on climate change and immigration in two Wednesday tweets congratulating him on his inauguration.
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"[Micorost] is proud the U.S. is rejoining the Paris Climate Accord and will continue our work with policymakers and partners to drive innovation and create jobs as we transition to a net zero carbon economy," Smith wrote.
He added that Biden is also "setting a new course on immigration—welcoming immigrants who contribute to our COVID-19 response and economic growth, restoring DACA, addressing visa bans and green card backlogs, and seeking a humanitarian path on immigration."
United Airlines, which says it wants to reduce 100% of its greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, applauded Biden's decision to rejoin the Paris Agreement in a Wednesday tweet, saying the airline is "committed to confronting the climate crisis."
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The new president's policies related to energy, immigration reform and COVID-19 will come in stark contrast to Trump's policies, which aimed to create tighter U.S. borders, promote deregulation in the energy and construction industries and allow states to come up with their own COVID-19 response plans.
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In his first 100 days in office, Biden has pledged to issue a mask mandate, pass a new COVID-19 relief bill, increase the national minimum wage to $15 per hour, reverse Trump immigration policies, shut down construction of the Keystone XL pipeline and expand the Affordable Care Act.