Steve Bannon, former White House Chief Strategist for US President Donald Trump, has made an appearance at the Y Combinator’s Little Tech Summit in California.
He appeared on stage alongside Rohit Chopra, a protege of Senator Elizabeth Warren, to discuss whether “techno-optimism and populism are incompatible”.
The occurrence was a surprise, with the event’s schedule listing his timeslot as a panel titled ” Conversation: TBA”.
Reports have suggested that the DC tech policy complex has increasingly been embracing MAGA rhetoric in recent years, particularly when it comes to big tech.
This has seen the justification for breaking up monopolies being described as the need to protect free speech, with smaller companies increasingly described as the victim of big tech, who are portrayed as the enemies of regular people.