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In President Trump’s first 100 days, institutions from big law firms and Ivy League schools to major drug manufacturers and government contractors have been quick to acquiesce to a range of demands from the administration. Unfortunately, Trump’s ire does not stop at our borders, and his demands and actions are increasingly isolating America from the rest of the world.
The private sector should not be short-sighted about this. U.S. companies still have the responsibility and opportunity to stand up for American ideals that support economic growth and democracy around the world. The winds of our politics may change, but the relationships and trust of our allies may not be so fickle. Damage today could take decades to rebuild.
Happily, a few companies still understand this.
Founded 50 years ago by high school friends Bill Gates and Paul Allen, there are few companies as American as Microsoft. Most notably, it has been taking bold steps to challenge Trump. Although the company has many faults — from its constant cybersecurity issues to restrictive licensing practices — it has acted in many ways against the Trump administration.
Microsoft’s pro-Europe stance took off last month when its president, Brad Smith, announced new European digital commitments to shield European data from the long arm of the Trump administration, even promising to pursue litigation against Trump’s Justice Department if needed “to protect the rights of our customers and other stakeholders.” As the relationship between the United States and Europe has otherwise grown more tense, Microsoft’s latest actions have shown that U.S. companies can play a substantial role in preserving the decades-long relationships that underpin Western democracy. For this, it is to be commended.
Unlike other major tech companies, Microsoft has resisted Trump’s vision for America. This started in the first days of the second Trump term, with Microsoft leaders opting to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos rather than Trump’s inauguration. Smith and Satya Nadella may have made the obligatory pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago like their peers to meet with Trump and Vance before the inauguration, but when asked about their absence, Smith said the company had “better places” to be.
While the company has continuously supported increasing access to “American AI” and was optimistic about its AI opportunities once Trump was back in office, Microsoft has struck a delicate balance between being supportive of the administration in some areas and not conceding on American values. Smith said in an interview in March that “we support this administration in many, many areas” but that he’s “probably more worried right now about the business climate in Washington than at any point over the last 30 years.”
This is admirable, considering how much Microsoft stands to lose. The company has an 85 percent share of the U.S. public sector’s productivity software market and billions of dollars in federal contracts. It is also reportedly under the microscope of a wide-ranging Federal Trade Commission antitrust investigation scrutinizing its software licensing practices and cloud computing business. Other companies would have turned their backs on Europe to curry favor with Trump in an attempt to make their risks go away, yet Microsoft has not.
To be clear, Microsoft is not alone. Other notable American institutions are also starting to stand up to the administration. Harvard, for instance, refused Trump’s demands and has continued to challenge the administration’s recent actions, including filing a lawsuit to halt the freezing of billions of dollars in government funds to the university. Top law firms Jenner and Block and WilmerHale have opposed Trump while some of their contemporaries are offering pro bono services to the administration worth millions — including one that Microsoft ditched as a result before hiring Jenner and Block.
Several big corporations are also maintaining their DEI commitments and programs despite recent “anti-woke” attacks from the White House, including Costco, Apple and Cisco, as well as Microsoft, which said “diversity and inclusion work is more important than ever.”
And after Trump threatened to take action against companies if they raised prices in response to his tariffs, Microsoft did it anyway by increasing the prices of Xbox consoles, controllers and certain games. Proctor and Gamble raised prices by 1 percent in their most recent quarter and announced their intent to sell new products at higher price points moving forward.
When Trump was re-elected, many major American businesses were excited by the potential economic opportunities of a transparently quid-pro-quo administration. While some companies have benefited, others — like Meta and Amazon — have not. But there are higher stakes at hand than profit. Now is the time when we learn which institutions are willing to adhere to the principles that have defined America since its founding, as well as the relationships that defined the past century. Those are the ones that deserve our praise — not the institutions that bend the knee.
Paul Rosenzweig served as deputy assistant secretary for policy at the Department of Homeland Security. He is a professorial lecturer at The George Washington University Law School and senior fellow in the Tech, Law and Security Program at the American University, Washington College of Law. He advises technology companies on cyber and national security issues, including companies that compete with Microsoft.
