Technology

Connections is a game from the New York Times that challenges you to find the association between words. It sounds easy, but it isn't—Connections categories can be almost anything, and they're usually quite specific. If you need a hand getting the answers, we've got you covered.

Using a smartphone on a tripod is nothing new. However, when MagSafe mounting was introduced to iPhone, it completely changed mobile photography and videography for me.

Your perfect grid on your Instagram profile might soon be gone — if it isn't already.

Instagram is rolling a big change this weekend: rectangles instead of squares. That means your carefully curated grid could be a mess as the dimensions of the content shift on your profile.

"I know some of you really like your squares. And square photos are sort of the heritage of Instagram," Instagram chief Adam Mosseri said in an Instagram story. "But at this point, most of what’s uploaded, both photos and videos, are vertical in their orientation. And it just is a bummer to overly crop them. I know it's a change. I know it's a bit of a pain, but I think it's a transitional pain."

That change is apparently creating some havoc already on grids everywhere. What once was a perfect image created by squares is a jumbled mess. Lots of folks noticed their favorite artists' Insta pages now looked odd, for instance.

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Instagram has been warning of this change for some time now. It began testing vertical grids in August and now it appears the change is really coming for everyone.

Video game sequels are often held up to lofty expectations that make it hard for them to live up to the hype. Fans are quick to accuse developers of playing things too "safe" when drastic innovations fail to materialize, but I think more of the same can be a good thing.

Automation can feel like magic. Having your door automatically unlock when you arrive home, or your favorite playlist start playing when you start driving is really satisfying. There are a surprising number of ways that you can trigger automations on your iPhone.

So you just got a Steam Deck, and you’ve probably even played a few games. But did you know that your Steam Deck is a fully fledged Linux PC? Here are some apps you should install in Desktop mode.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, a billionaire tech guy, has cozied up further to President-elect Donald Trump like, well, just about every other billionaire tech guy.

In fact, he cozied up to Trump by trolling Democrats who sent a letter over concerns that Altman was...cozying up to Trump. Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Michael Bennet sent a letter to Altman worrying he was attempting to "cozy up to the incoming Trump administration" to "avoid scrutiny, limit regulation, and buy favor." The letter noted that Altman donated $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund.

SEE ALSO: OpenAI's Sam Altman sued by sister, alleging years of sexual abuse

How do we know about this letter? Well, Altman posted it to X, writing, "funny, they never sent me one of these for contributing to democrats..."

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Altman followed up by writing: "it was a personal contribution as you state; i am confused about the questions given that my company did not make a decision."

Altman is far from the only tech guy to give money and/or lavish praise on Trump. As Mashable has noted in previous coverage, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, and Tesla's Elon Musk, among other tech power players, are all set to attend the inauguration. TikTok's CEO went out of his way to praise the president-elect ahead of the looming ban. Pretty much everyone in the tech world has lurched rightward into Trump's waiting arms.

SEE ALSO: The bros’ new clothes: How Big Tech lurched to the right

So of course Altman would troll Democrats online — that's exactly what folks on the right love to do.

This was a busy week for PC and Windows news, from big changes to Microsoft 365 to new gaming handhelds. Here are the biggest stories you might have missed.

Got a laptop or gaming setup that could use extra USB, Ethernet, SD card, or HDMI ports? A USB-C hub is the way to go.

Japanese entertainment giant Nintendo has officially announced the successor to its best-selling console in a short teaser video. Dubbed the Nintendo Switch 2, the device features a long list of improvements, including a bigger display and an additional USB-C port.

The Mini is a bite-sized version of The New York Times' revered daily crossword. While the crossword is a lengthier experience that requires both knowledge and patience to complete, The Mini is an entirely different vibe.

With only a handful of clues to answer, the daily puzzle doubles as a speed-running test for many who play it.

So, when a tricky clue disrupts a player's flow, it can be frustrating! If you find yourself stumped playing The Mini — much like with Wordle and Connections — we have you covered.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable

Here are the clues and answers to NYT's The Mini for Saturday, January 18, 2025:

AcrossWorked in Microsoft Word

• The answer is Typed.

With 14-Across, comedy writer who takes a road trip with Will Ferrell in a 2024 Netflix documentary

• The answer is Harper.

Pseudonyms

• The answer is Aliases.

Director Burton

• The answer is Tim.

"Oh, there ___ again!"

• The answer is I go.

10-legged marine crustacean

• The answer is Sea crab.

See 6-Across

• The answer is Steele.

Like the firstborn of two children

• The answer is Elder.

Down"___ all there is to it!"

• The answer is Thats.

Ivy Leaguers in Connecticut

• The answer is Yalies.

Man or mandrill

• The answer is Primate.

Org. concerned with clean air and water

• The answer is EPA.

Wished for

• The answer is Desired.

Lavishly entertain (with)

• The answer is Regale.

Not drinking any alcohol

• The answer is Sober.

Collectible cartoon image sold at Disney World

• The answer is Cel.

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Featured Video For You The Wordle Strategy used by the New York Times' Head of Games

Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to today's Mini Crossword.

This was a busy week in tech, from the first reveal of the Nintendo Switch 2 to TikTok's looming ban in the United States. Here are the biggest stories you might have missed.

The internet is so commonplace that most people don't even think about what the world would be like if we lost connection. Yet, in some places, all that connects people to other people is a single underwater internet cable. Here's what happens if those cables are cut.

Ever wondered what happens when you wrap your phone in tinfoil? I decided to try it out to see if there’s any truth—or benefit—to the idea.

Oh hey there! If you're here, it must be time for Wordle. As always, we're serving up our daily hints and tips to help you figure out today's answer.

If you just want to be told today's word, you can jump to the bottom of this article for today's Wordle solution revealed. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable SEE ALSO: NYT Connections today: Hints and answers for January 18 Where did Wordle come from?

Originally created by engineer Josh Wardle as a gift for his partner, Wordle rapidly spread to become an international phenomenon, with thousands of people around the globe playing every day. Alternate Wordle versions created by fans also sprang up, including battle royale Squabble, music identification game Heardle, and variations like Dordle and Quordle that make you guess multiple words at once. 

Wordle eventually became so popular that it was purchased by the New York Times, and TikTok creators even livestream themselves playing.

What's the best Wordle starting word?

The best Wordle starting word is the one that speaks to you. But if you prefer to be strategic in your approach, we have a few ideas to help you pick a word that might help you find the solution faster. One tip is to select a word that includes at least two different vowels, plus some common consonants like S, T, R, or N.

What happened to the Wordle archive?

The entire archive of past Wordle puzzles was originally available for anyone to enjoy whenever they felt like it, but it was later taken down, with the website's creator stating it was done at the request of the New York Times. However, the New York Times then rolled out its own Wordle Archive, available only to NYT Games subscribers.

Is Wordle getting harder?

It might feel like Wordle is getting harder, but it actually isn't any more difficult than when it first began. You can turn on Wordle's Hard Mode if you're after more of a challenge, though.

SEE ALSO: NYT's The Mini crossword answers for January 18, 2025 Here's a subtle hint for today's Wordle answer:

Foolish or playful.

Does today's Wordle answer have a double letter?

There is one letter that appears twice.

Today's Wordle is a 5-letter word that starts with...

Today's Wordle starts with the letter S.

SEE ALSO: Wordle-obsessed? These are the best word games to play IRL. The Wordle answer today is...

Get your last guesses in now, because it's your final chance to solve today's Wordle before we reveal the solution.

Drumroll please!

The solution to today's Wordle is...

SILLY.

Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be a new Wordle for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.

Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for January 18

Reporting by Chance Townsend, Caitlin Welsh, Sam Haysom, Amanda Yeo, Shannon Connellan, Cecily Mauran, Mike Pearl, and Adam Rosenberg contributed to this article.

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to today's Wordle.

If you're reading this, you're looking for a little help playing Strands, the New York Times' elevated word-search game.

Strands requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There's always a theme linking every solution, along with the "spangram," a special, word or phrase that sums up that day's theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable

By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.

If you're feeling stuck or just don't have 10 or more minutes to figure out today's puzzle, we've got all the NYT Strands hints for today's puzzle you need to progress at your preferred pace.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for January 18 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for January 18 NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: O ___! My ___!

These words share the same "rank."

Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained

Words are famous captains.

NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?

Today's NYT Strands spangram is horizontal.

NYT Strands spangram answer today

Today's spangram is Captain.

Featured Video For You Strands 101: How to win NYT’s latest word game NYT Strands word list for January 18

• Crunch

• Hook

• Underpants

• Obvious

• Planet

• Kangaroo

• Captain

Looking for other daily online games? Mashable's Games page has more hints, and if you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now!

Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to today's Strands.

Connections is the one of the most popular New York Times word games that's captured the public's attention. The game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.

If you just want to be told today's puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for today's Connections solution. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable What is Connections?

The NYT's latest daily word game has become a social media hit. The Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with helping to create the new word game and bringing it to the publications' Games section. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.

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Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there's only one correct answer.

If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.

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Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.

SEE ALSO: NYT's The Mini crossword answers for January 18 Here's a hint for today's Connections categories

Want a hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:

• Yellow: Strong feelings or cravings

• Green: Sharp and pointed objects

• Blue: Key details on an album

• Purple: Making a metaphorical or literal change

Featured Video For You Connections: How to play and how to win Here are today's Connections categories

Need a little extra help? Today's connections fall into the following categories:

• Yellow: Desire

• Green: Barb

• Blue: Info on a Record

• Purple: Turn the___

Looking for Wordle today? Here's the answer to today's Wordle.

Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today's puzzle before we reveal the solutions.

Drumroll, please!

The solution to today's Connections #587 is...

What is the answer to Connections today

• Desire: DRIVE, IMPULSE, ITCH, URGE

• Barb: SPINE, SPUR, STICKER, THORN

• Info on a Record: ALBUM, ARTIST, LABEL, TRACK

• Turn the___: CORNER, PAGE, TABLES, TIDE

Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be new Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for January 18

Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to today's Connections.

Connections: Sports Edition is a new version of the popular New York Times word game that seeks to test the knowledge of sports fans.

Like the original Connections, the game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.

If you just want to be told today's puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for the latest Connections solution. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable What is Connections Sports Edition?

The NYT's latest daily word game has launched in association with The Athletic, the New York Times property that provides the publication's sports coverage. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.

Tweet may have been deleted

Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there's only one correct answer.

If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.

Tweet may have been deleted

Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.

Here's a hint for today's Connections Sports Edition categories

Want a hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:

• Yellow: Professional soccer teams in the U.S.

• Green: Teams who compete in the same NFL division

• Blue: Race locations

• Purple: Recent champions

Featured Video For You Connections: How to play and how to win Here are today's Connections Sports Edition categories

Need a little extra help? Today's connections fall into the following categories:

• Yellow: MLS teams

• Green: NFC East teams

• Blue: F1 Grand Prix

• Purple: Reigning Champions in their respective leagues

Looking for Wordle today? Here's the answer to today's Wordle.

Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today's puzzle before we reveal the solutions.

Drumroll, please!

The solution to today's Connections Sports Edition #117 is...

What is the answer to Connections Sports Edition today

• MLS teams - DYNAMO, GALAXY, SOUNDERS, UNION

• NFC East teams - COMMANDERS, COWBOYS, EAGLES, GIANTS

• F1 Grand Prix - MEXICO CITY, MIAMI, MONACO, SINGAPORE

• Reigning champions in their respective leagues - CHIEFS, DODGERS, LIBERTY, MANCHESTER CITY

Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be new Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.

Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to today's Connections.

Most small galaxies that stopped making new stars in the early universe never resumed operations. Something caused their celestial factories to shutter. 

But researchers have used the James Webb Space Telescope, a collaboration of NASA and its European and Canadian space counterparts, to zero in on a dwarf galaxy that bucked the trend, rebooting its star formation after a billions-of-years-long hiatus. 

The dwarf galaxy, known as Leo P and about 5.3 million light-years from Earth, is offering new insights into galaxy evolution and the factors necessary to keep galaxies growing and churning out new stars.  

"We have a measurement like this for only three other galaxies — all isolated from the Milky Way — and they all show a similar pattern," said Kristen McQuinn, the principal investigator on the study, in a statement.

SEE ALSO: Astronomers just witnessed a whole galaxy 'turn on the lights' in real-time The James Webb Space Telescope zeroed in on dwarf galaxy Leo P to study its star-formation history. Credit: NASA GSFC / CIL / Adriana Manrique Gutierrez illustration

Astronomers have learned that galaxies tend to start out small and grow larger by collecting gas and merging with other galaxies. But most dwarf galaxies that made stars before the so-called Epoch of Reionization never got back to business after. 

Reionization was an era of major transition that occurred more than 13 billion years ago.  It was when the baby universe transformed from a neutral state to one filled with free electrons and protons. 

Prior to it, the gas in the primitive universe was mostly opaque. That's why scientists refer to the period before as the cosmic "dark ages." Researchers are trying to better understand the processes that allowed the universe to become fairly transparent. 

Because most of the tiny galaxies turned off their star-making activity in the first few billion years after the Big Bang, many scientists have thought reionization was the reason. But that understanding may be skewed by biased data.

Researchers used Webb to take pictures of Leo P, gathering data for some 15,000 stars. Credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / K. McQuinn / J. DePasquale

Most studies have focused on small galaxies nearby, making it difficult to conclude whether it was reionization or some other environmental factors, like the influence of neighboring large galaxies, including the Milky Way. Galaxies in denser clusters are surrounded by hot gas, stymying the collection and cooling of gas needed to churn out new stars. 

That's why McQuinn's team picked Leo P, a more isolated galaxy than the 80-or-so tiny ones within our region of space, known to astronomers as the "local group." The findings, presented at the 245th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Maryland this past week, are published in The Astrophysical Journal. 

Leo P — the P stands for "pristine" — is mostly composed of hydrogen and helium, the same primitive material that emerged out of the Big Bang. Given that most of the chemicals in the universe are thought to have come from exploded dead stars, scientists have rationalized that the firstborn stars must have been almost entirely formed of these original elements.

Reionization was an era of major transition that occurred more than 13 billion years ago. Credit: NASA / STScI

The researchers used Webb to take pictures of Leo P, gathering data for some 15,000 stars. By measuring their brightness and color, astronomers could estimate the stars' ages. This allowed them to map out the stellar birth rate over time. 

The team speculates that high heat in the galaxy may have suspended star formation. Then, as the universe cooled down, stars began to form again. But why would Leo P experience a renaissance that many others galaxies of its kind wouldn't?

Perhaps it's not just the mass of the galaxy that mattered but whether it was close to larger galaxies, too.

The team intends to study four more isolated dwarf galaxies to see if they share similar star-forming history.

The sight of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg sitting together at Donald Trump's inauguration — as they reportedly will do Monday — would be a shock for their 2016 selves.

Back then, these titans of the tech world were way to the left of Trump, whose political stances put him about as far to the right as Republicans get, then and now.

Musk, once a vocal Barack Obama supporter, voted for Trump's opponent Hillary Clinton in 2016. The Bezos of that year blasted candidate Trump for "eroding democracy." Zuckerberg didn't make an endorsement, but the issues he put his money behind at the time — social justice, inequality, easing the immigration process — put him squarely on the Democratic side of the political line.

The most vocal tech world supporter of Trump in 2016, Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel, was seen as an outlier back then: Silicon Valley was solid blue. Now the outlier is Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who hasn't donated to Trump's inauguration fund and won't be attending.

All the other big names in tech will be there: Apple's Tim Cook, Google's Sundar Pichai, Microsoft's Satya Nadella, OpenAI's Sam Altman, and TikTok's Shou Chew, have all donated $1 million or more, and all save Altman will be in attendance.

What happened? It wasn't just that these men were made so much richer by a stock market rally following Trump's election in November. A similar rally happened in November 2016 as well, and it didn't make tech CEOs any less reluctant at a Trump Tower meeting with the president-elect. That was the roundtable where Thiel's smile stood out in a sea of grimaces.

Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel, left, and Apple CEO Tim Cook display very different reactions to Donald Trump speaking after his 2016 election. Credit: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images

The process of tech leaders learning to love Trump may have begun piecemeal during his first administration. But it only really kicked into high gear over the course of 2024, with a speed and ferocity that has left many observers' heads spinning. No wonder President Biden, in his farewell address, warned of a tech-led "oligarchy" that may threaten democracy itself.

To understand what happened, let's take a look at the three richest tech bros, who also happen to be the three wealthiest men in the world, and the journey they took from opposing Trump in 2023 to sitting together at his inauguration in 2025.

Elon Musk

Nowadays, of course, Musk is so central in Trump's camp that he is sometimes described as the incoming "co-president." He donated $250 million, spoke at Trump rallies, called himself "Dark MAGA," and clearly put more than a thumb on the scale for Trump on Twitter/X throughout the fall of 2024.

Musk's America PAC seized the @America account from its original owner, and even now faces a fresh lawsuit from Pennsylvania's Attorney General over that PAC's dubious $1 million lottery for swing state voters.

But it's important to remember that Musk wasn't always this far right, and his turn towards Trump came fairly recently. Yes, he joined Trump's business council in 2017, but he also quit when Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Climate accords. Back then, the Bay Area-based Burning Man attendee was still happy to support Pride month.

Musk drifted rightwards during the pandemic years, when he moved Tesla HQ to Texas and, according to reports, began feuding with his trans daughter. The drift seems to have accelerated when he bought Twitter in 2022, started tweeting about the "woke mind virus," and endorsed the GOP (unsuccessfully) in that year's midterm elections.

Even then, Musk was no Trump fan. In 2023 he helped launch Florida governor Ron DeSantis' presidential campaign in a disastrous Twitter Spaces. Musk's statement that Trump should "sail into the sunset" prompted a brief feud with the former president. "I could have said, "drop to your knees and beg," and he would have done it," Trump responded, recalling an Oval Office meeting in his first term.

Then came 2024, and three key events. First, DeSantis dropped out in January. Then on May 31, Donald Trump's conviction in a New York courtroom over hush money payments that possibly swung a close 2016 election his way. Musk fumed that the charges were "trivial" and politically motivated. By then, perhaps not coincidentally, Trump was already talking to Musk about a possible advisory role — and we were starting to learn just how many federal agencies were investigating Musk.

SEE ALSO: Why Elon Musk is skipping around on stage for Donald Trump

But the deal was sealed in July when Trump survived a shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania. Musk "fully endorsed" Trump on Twitter that day, then made his first appearance with Trump on his return to Butler in October.

By then, Trump had already promised Musk his Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, the advisory group that Musk is set to lead along with fellow billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy. The latest reports on DOGE say that Musk will have an office inside the White House itself.

Notably, Musk did not have to drop to his knees and beg for any of this. Which leads us to wonder: who is really on whose leash here?

Jeff Bezos

In the 2016 election, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was one of Trump's most outspoken critics in the tech world. A month after Trump entered the White House, Bezos' Washington Post unveiled its pointed new slogan, echoing its owner's warnings: "Democracy dies in darkness." Bezos and the Post's coverage continued to earn Trump's ire.

Two years later, in an equally pithy Medium post, Bezos attacked Trump ally David Pecker, head of the company that owns the National Enquirer, for what Bezos said was blackmail over nude photos of the billionaire.

But a curious thing had started to happen by then. With his growing wealth, which spiked in the late 2010s, plus his new marriage and new yacht, Bezos started to develop a serious case of Rich Guy Brain. By 2022, his tone on social media had changed entirely, becoming much more Musk-like. No longer was Bezos skewering his Trumpian opponents for literally threatening to expose his ass; instead, he was discussing compliments on his ass.

Finally came the moment that Bezos' opposition broke. His top lieutenant at the Post told staffers there would be no presidential endorsement in 2024 — which, if democracy was still at risk, seemed a curious case of fence-sitting. (Indeed, the Post staff had prepared a Kamala Harris endorsement that was effectively spiked.)

More than 200,000 Post subscribers cancelled their subscription in disgust. Still, Bezos seemed unmoved. This time he penned a piece explaining that newspaper endorsements didn't matter. It was, he said, a complete coincidence that Trump was visiting his space company Blue Origin the same day.

After the election, Bezos continued his shift towards Trump. In a December interview he said the incoming president was "calmer" and had "grown a lot over the last eight years." Time will tell whether that's true, or whether Bezos has simply shifted to the side of Dark MAGA.

Mark Zuckerberg

Unlike Musk and Bezos, who moved Trumpwards all at once, the Facebook founder seems to have slalomed back and forth in his attempts to placate Republicans in Washington since Trump first took office.

Prior to Trump's first election, Zuckerberg was easily the most liberal of this Big Tech trio. As a New York Times investigation during election season noted, he helped found Fwd.us, an advocacy group dedicated to giving undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship. The Zuckerberg-Chan initiative spent nearly half a trillion dollars on causes such as legalizing drugs, reducing the number of people in U.S. prisons, and promoting universal healthcare.

But then in the immediate aftermath of the 2016 election, Zuckerberg quickly tossed aside claims that unchecked fake news on Facebook had contributed to Trump's victory. He later regretted that stance, but not enough to avoid being dubbed Misinformer of the Year in 2017 by the watchdog group Media Matters for America.

Zuckerberg's response to Trump's first election was twofold: he minimized the presence of news posts in Facebook feeds, which unintentionally contributed to a widespread crash in readership for media entities. And he set up a fact-checking service, which often earned the ire of conservative groups. The fact-checking service was nuked in January 2025, pleasing the incoming Trump administration.

Often wanting to appear amenable to conservative concerns about the news feed and which stories get promoted, Zuckerberg made repeated changes to the algorithm that boosted pro-GOP voices. When internal data showed right-wing news sites like the Daily Caller were getting more interactions on Facebook than anyone else, Zuckerberg nixed the release of that data.

The more amenable he is, however, the more conservative voices (including Musk) complain — an old tactic called "playing the ref." Now Zuckerberg has morphed again, apologizing even for his donation to election integrity groups in 2020. Most recently, he told Joe Rogan that corporate America needs more "masculine energy."

What that means for the social media giant remains to be seen, but America is certainly about to get a lot more oligarch energy from Zuck and his fellow tech bros.