President Trump awards big tech donors with nation’s highest science prizes

On Thursday, at the Golden Age of American Innovation Summit, President Trump awarded Elon Musk, Jensen Huang, Sergey Brin, and AMD’s Lisa Su the National Medal of Science, the nation’s top science prize. Dell Technologies’ Michael Dell and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella also received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.

Together, the awardees have donated nearly $6 billion to efforts tied to Trump and his administration, according to The New Republic. Alphabet and Microsoft, for example, donated to the president’s inauguration fund and White House ballroom. AMD gave to a pro-Trump Super PAC and Michael and Susan Dell pledged $6.25 billion to help fund the Trump Accounts, the administration’s savings program for children. 

Trump said the honorees individuals had helped “pioneer an incredible future for America,” and that because of them, “we will always be on top. No one else can compete with us.” 

Nadella received his medal right after the administration indefinitely suspended Microsoft from the H-1B program, which lets U.S. companies hire skilled foreign workers.