Another Trump tweet paints an uncomfortable picture for Google

Twitter is the battlefield and an iPhone his weapon; the hawkish President Trump has seemingly declared war on the hipsters and IT geeks of Google.

Once again, with little evidence, Trump has declared war on a technology company. This time however, the Commander in Chief has directed his venom towards a domestic enemy of the Oval Office. Thanks to the seemingly unfounded accusations of tech entrepreneur Peter Thiel, the President now has the idea Google is under the influence of the Chinese Government.

Speaking at a conference, Thiel used his keynote speech to launch an attack at the internet giant. Theil posed three questions to the audience; firstly, how many foreign intelligence agencies have infiltrated Google’s AI work. Secondly, whether Google’s management team believes it has been infiltrated by China. And finally, why it was working with the Chinese Government and not the US Government.

To be clear, aside from Thiel’s accusations, there is little evidence of such grand conspiracy theories.

That said, the burden of truth is not a consideration which is greatly appreciated by the current administration. Throughout the entire Huawei saga, no evidence of collusion with the Chinese Government has been presented to the general public, and it seems it hasn’t been presented to allied Governments either. Numerous nations have refused the call to ban Huawei without suitable evidence, and the resistance continues today.

Bearing this in mind, the Googlers should have something to worry about. Trump has demonstrated he can make life awkward for those who get his wrong side.

For the moment, there are no details of what an investigation would entail or whether the threat of treason is genuine. Another trend which we have witnessed over the last 29 months is the huffing and puffing nature of the President. This might be nothing more than a bicep flex against a company deemed to be a domestic enemy.

Trump has had a difficult relationship with Google over the last few years, with the President and many of his supporters suggesting conservative voices are being supressed on the digital highway. Perhaps we should not be surprised Trump has targeted another mainstay of Silicon Valley.

One has to question how many fronts the Trump war campaign can fight simultaneously; the enemies of the White House are starting to add up.