Former President Donald Trump recently accused Google of being “rigged” against him, claiming that the search engine fails to display positive stories about him. However, he also indicated that he might not advocate for the break up the company if he wins the upcoming election, citing concerns over China’s technological ambitions.
The New York Times reports that during a meeting of the Economic Club of Chicago, former President Donald Trump voiced his frustration with Google, accusing the tech giant of presenting a biased view of him in its search results. “I called the head of Google the other day and I said, ‘I’m getting a lot of good stories lately, but you don’t find them in Google,” he said. “I think it’s a whole rigged deal. I think Google is rigged just like our government is rigged all over the place.”
Trump’s comments echo his statements throughout the campaign, such as after both Google and Facebook censored real images of the assassination attempt targeting Trump in Pennsylvania:
“Facebook has just admitted that it wrongly censored the Trump ‘attempted assassination photo,’ and got caught. Same thing for Google,” Trump accurately wrote on his Truth Social account. “They made it virtually impossible to find pictures or anything about this heinous act. Both are facing BIG BACKLASH OVER CENSORSHIP CLAIMS.”
Then he added this fact: “Here we go again, another attempt at RIGGING THE ELECTION!!!”
The post closed with Trump asking his supporters to “GO AFTER META AND GOOGLE. LET THEM KNOW WE ARE ALL WISE TO THEM, WILL BE MUCH TOUGHER THIS TIME. MAGA2024!”
Despite these strong words, Trump expressed skepticism about breaking up the company, marking a notable shift from his administration’s previous stance. The Trump administration had sued Google in 2020 over allegations that it illegally maintained a monopoly in the online search business. The lawsuit, filed by the Justice Department just weeks before the presidential election, argued that Google had engaged in anticompetitive practices by paying companies like Apple and Samsung to be the default search engine on smartphones and web browsers. The judge in that lawsuit ruled that Google did wield monopoly power, putting a potential breakup of Google on the table.
However, during his recent remarks, Trump questioned whether a corporate split might “destroy the company,” though he maintained that he was not a fan of Google. “What you can do without breaking it up is make sure it’s more fair,” he said, signaling a potential shift in strategy should he regain the presidency.
Trump’s apparent change in stance appears to be influenced by geopolitical considerations, particularly the ongoing competition between the United States and China for dominance in key technological areas such as artificial intelligence. “China is afraid of Google,” Trump asserted, echoing the company’s argument that a breakup could undermine America’s interests in this heated global rivalry.
Read more at the New York Times here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
