A shock outsider when he was first elected president eight years ago — and a pariah when he left office — Donald Trump appears to be the most popular person in America as far as the rich and powerful are concerned.
Tech tycoons, US politicians, foreign leaders and even some in the media have been lining up to kiss the ring of the 78-year-old Republican ahead of his return to the White House in January.
“In the first term, everyone was fighting me. In this term, everybody wants to be my friend,” Trump mused to reporters at his luxury Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Monday.
“I don’t know, my personality changed or something.”
In reality, Trump has shown few signs of a personality shift — but many of those who once criticized him are eager to cozy up to an administration that values loyalty above all else.
“For now, folks are estimating that it is better to be on his good side than not — the problem for them is that his good side changes frequently,” Wendy Schiller, a political science professor at Brown University, told AFP.
With Trump spending most of his time since the election at Mar-a-Lago, it has been up to others to make their pilgrimages to its gilded halls.
The list of those who have done so reads like a who’s who of the global tech industry.
