Ex-Twitter CEO: Meeting with Trump like waterboarding yourself

Former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo said President Trump’s meetings with Silicon Valley leaders are like “waterboard[ing] yourself.”

“If you don’t get invited to this meeting and want to know what it was like, just drink a bottle of gin and then waterboard yourself,” Costolo tweeted on Friday night.

If you don’t get invited to this meeting and want to know what it was like, just drink a bottle of gin and then waterboard yourself. https://t.co/secLdw2Xjp

— dick costolo (@dickc) June 10, 2017

{mosads}

Costolo was referencing news that Trump will hold a meeting later this month with Silicon Valley venture capitalists and entrepreneurs from emerging tech companies, according to BuzzFeed.

Silicon Valley leaders have had a complicated and sometimes tense relationship with Trump since his election in November. Trump met with several tech industry leaders, including Tesla’s Elon Musk, Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg and Alphabet’s Eric Schmidt and Larry Page in December, aiming to ease their concerns over the administration’s push to crack down on H1-B visas.

Trump has also reached out to Silicon Valley leaders to take part in a new White House council aimed at establishing better digital services for the federal government. 

And while tech mogul Peter Thiel served as a key advisor during Trump’s transition to the presidency, other Silicon Valley leaders have spurned Trump. Musk announced he would leave several White House advisory councils after Trump announced his intention to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement. 

Am departing presidential councils. Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 1, 2017

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick stepped down from an advisory council in February due to pressure from outside groups and Uber employees.