President-elect Donald Trump was a key topic on Wednesday at the New York Times DealBook Summit. Media executives, finance leaders, and tech entrepreneurs gathered in New York City for the annual event.
Instead of hostility, there was cautious optimism. Billionaire Jeff Bezos expressed his views during an on-stage conversation with Times columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin.
“I’m very hopeful — he seems to have a lot of energy around reducing regulation,” Bezos said.
“My point of view is, if I can help him do that, I’m going to help him,” Bezos added. “Because we do have too much regulation in this country.”
Bezos, who owns the Washington Post, recently faced backlash for canceling the paper’s planned endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris before the election. The decision stirred controversy among employees and readers.
“It was the right decision,” Bezos told Sorkin. “I’m proud of the decision we made, and it was far from cowardly because we knew there would be blowback. We did the right thing.”
He rejected claims that he avoided endorsing Harris to avoid Trump’s potential wrath against Amazon or the Washington Post. Bezos even showed some optimism about Trump’s approach post-election.
“I’m very optimistic that President Trump is serious about this regulatory agenda, and I think he has a good chance of succeeding,” Bezos said.
When asked about Trump’s view of the press as the “enemy,” Bezos said he would “try and talk him out of that.” He noted that Trump seemed calmer and more confident this time around.
“What I’ve seen so far is he is calmer than he was the first time,” Bezos added. “And more confident, more settled.”
Bezos wasn’t the only speaker to mention Trump. Former President Bill Clinton also weighed in during his discussion with Sorkin.
Clinton criticized Democrats for failing to handle press disagreements without appearing as a “left-wing version of Donald Trump.” He noted that anti-press rhetoric resonates with some Republicans but alienates liberals.
Jerome Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve, expressed confidence in working with Trump’s Treasury nominee, Scott Bessent. Meanwhile, podcast host Alex Cooper revealed that while her team had talks with Trump’s campaign, an interview didn’t happen. However, she did interview Harris.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman dismissed concerns about Elon Musk’s ties to Trump, stating, “I believe pretty strongly that Elon will do the right thing and that it would be profoundly un-American to use political power to harm competitors.”
Citadel CEO Ken Griffin set the tone early, declaring that “America is back to business” to a packed audience.
“For corporate America, it’s a better world today than it was before the election,” Griffin told Sorkin.
The DealBook conference featured influential figures like Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Prince Harry, and Serena Williams. High-profile attendees included Chris Licht, Bob Kraft, Bill Ackman, Shayne Coplan, Katie Couric, Jeff Zucker, Lance Armstrong, and Rebecca Minkoff. The summit remains a hub for global leaders.