How Big Tech Sets the Agenda in Trump’s America

This is the New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker. Welcome to the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm Evan Osnos, sitting in today for David Remnick. I'm based in Washington for The New Yorker, and I can tell you that some of the best political reporting on Trump's second term has actually come from a tech magazine, Wired. Firstwired published a series of scoops about Elon Musk's reign in the White House, and even though Musk has moved on, Doge is still having a massive and disruptive influence in our government and in many people's lives and jobs.

It could be startling to realize how much the tech industry is setting the agenda for American politics right now. Donald Trump, who after all used Social media to triumph in politics has also become a major promoter and beneficiary of cryptocurrency. And meanwhile, AI is at the top of every serious conversation about the world and how it's changing. Wired has been covering all of this really well, so I recently sat down with its global editorial director, Katie Drummond.

Drummond is also the co-host of Wired's podcast called Uncanny Valley. Katie, we are talking about six months into this administration and we'll get to what Wired has explained recently as Doge 2.0 in just a second. But I want to start by going back for a moment to to when this effort began because Doge has been a hard target. for journalists to pin down. It's operating very much in the shadows by design.

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