Lea Feiger: Enough trillions that don’t actually exist currently in that budget.
Katie Drummond: Exactly. So to think about that very messy, very human business and Elon Musk and Donald Trump in a room making decisions about it, where you don’t really see a lot of empathy, you don’t see a lot of nuanced thinking about people and what people need. That’s very stressful.
Lea Feiger: Absolutely. And at point X, there is a slight devil’s advocate depending on what the objective was. If the goal was really to maintain X as a profitable business communication to the world, etc., then yes, absolutely, it failed. If the goal was to get Trump elected and occupy a position of power, who cares about that money he lost?
Katie Drummond: Great point.
Lea Feiger: It made it up tenfold over the last week with Tesla stock and probably some upcoming government contracts and lack of regulations. I guess it’s related to: are you subsidizing your communications and media platforms so you can pay the dividends later? I don’t know, maybe we’ll have a different conversation a year from now if Musk is suddenly in charge of every US defense contract there is.
Katie Drummond: We certainly will. And that’s a great point. I mean, it’s essentially deficit financing that has become and is increasingly a right-wing conservative echo chamber that serves as a megaphone for the Trump administration and its acolytes, and then job well done.
Lea Feiger: Yes. On the other hand, Trump has promised to deport millions and imprison his enemies. And to carry out that agenda, his administration will exploit America’s digital surveillance machine. We just published the WIRED Guide to Protecting Yourself from Surveillance Under Trump, which has some steps you can take to get around all of this. See the link in our show notes please. But beyond reading that helpful guide, what else should individuals and institutions do or even think about when addressing cybersecurity in the age of Trump? All of this for me is very related.
Katie Drummond: Wow, that’s a great question. And much of this is covered in this guide, which I would also add is published outside of WIRED’s paywall. This is important service journalism and we want to make sure as many people as possible have access to it. So please go and check that out. I mean, I think this is a moment for individuals, whatever you do for a living, if you don’t work in a government agency, if you’re not a journalist, it doesn’t matter. I wouldn’t make any assumptions about your personal safety at this time because the truth is, you never know. You never know what circumstances you may find yourself in, where you wish you had been better about your digital security, better about your online hygiene and your online communications. I think we’ve seen that in other parts of the world other than the United States so far, that a single post on a website can land you in prison. That’s why I think it’s very important for everyone to take a minute and think about what they have on the Internet, how they communicate with the people they love, and what is shared in the cloud. The answer is everything on your phone. All your text messages, all your photos, your videos, everything you write in your Notes app, your most personal data, your search history. It’s all out there and this is a good time to deal with it. And even if it’s not because of the arrival of the Trump administration, it’s simply good practice. So if this serves as a wake-up call or reminder to someone who may have become too complacent in the way they behave in the context of digital security, now is a good time to re-evaluate. And I think that for people and institutions it is also an interesting time to think about what their lines are. And for individuals, families, businesses, and institutions, I think this is a time to really think again: Whatever you do, whatever your institution does, whatever services you offer, what lines will you cross? and what lines will you not cross? And what risks are you willing to take to protect those red lines you’ve drawn? And that could have a lot to do with providing access to reproductive healthcare to your employees. It could be immigration if you employ immigrants with visas. Really thinking about, okay, we need to spend some time with our lawyers and talk about the worst case scenario. I think the smart thing to do right now is to think about all the worst-case scenarios that could affect you, your family, the company you run, the company you work for, and be prepared for the worst possible thing to happen and I hope May it not be, but know that you are prepared if it happens. I think even internally at WIRED, one thing we’re talking about is we obviously intend to continue doing our journalism the way we do, but do we all need to be prepared for the possible worst-case scenarios of this administration with respect to the media? And what are we going to do about it if that shows up on our parent company’s doorstep?