Somehow this was never really picked up on/reported after Trump’s first term, but I try to spread this information as much as I can.

Trump’s CTO during his first term, was Peter Thiel’s protege. In March of 2020, Trump asked him to use cutting edge technology to fight COVID disinformation and track the spread of the virus before it got out of hand.

That’s also the guy he picked for his fucking science advisor this time around, and now he’s asked him to “blaze a trail,” for U.S. tech supremacy.

From the 2020 Hill article

The White House on Wednesday asked the tech industry’s top players to help the government in the fight against coronavirus, tapping the expertise of companies like Apple, Facebook and Amazon to help beat back falsehoods and use artificial intelligence to glean new insights into the fast-spreading virus.

In a phone call, U.S. Chief Technology Officer Michael Kratsios implored the companies to help out with an “all-hands-on-deck effort” to fight the new coronavirus.

“The White House’s top priority is ensuring the safety and health of the American people amid the COVID-19 outbreak,” Kratsios said in a statement. “Cutting edge technology companies and major online platforms will play a critical role in this all-hands-on-deck effort.”