Silicon Valley braces for firestorm of Dem scrutiny in 2027

Silicon Valley is bracing for a firestorm of scrutiny should Democrats take control of Congress next year, underscoring how the industry’s efforts to get on President Trump’s good side last year became a political liability. 

After two years of a GOP-controlled House and Senate, Democratic lawmakers are expected to bring the heat on tech firms, both through investigations into the companies’ relationships with the Trump administration and proposed AI safety regulations.

In the face of a Republican-led Washington, multiple AI and defense tech firms lined up to reconcile with the Trump administration at the start of the president’s second term. 

Two years later, political strategists predict these efforts — and a lack of AI safety regulations — could come back to haunt the tech industry in a Democrat-led Congress. 

The tech industry has “done nothing to prevent themselves from being the villain of the 2028 storyline,” Cooper Teboe, a Silicon Valley-based Democratic strategist, told The Hill. “I suspect they have a significant number of investigations coming their way on the official side and on the political side.” 

Should Democrats take the majority, Teboe predicted party members will start “pissed and looking for someone to go after.”

While business executives cozying up to incoming presidents of both parties is nothing new, the shift of the typical left-leaning Silicon Valley seems to be making a lasting impression on Americans’ perception of these companies. 

In a recent Politico poll, Americans were more likely to assume the executives heading up the largest tech firms are Republican, including ones like Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who clashed with the Trump administration on AI safety earlier this year. 

Asked about the poll, Teboe said, “How could they not? Like, these guys are standing behind the president every chance they........

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