US President Donald Trump has demanded that Microsoft fire its recently appointed head of global affairs Lisa Monaco.
Through social network staff, Trump argued that Monaco's time serving in the Obama and Biden administrations makes her unsuitable as a Microsoft employee because the company's many contracts with the US government mean she may have access to "highly sensitive information."
“The fact that Monaco has this kind of access is unacceptable,” Trump argued, before concluding that “In my opinion, Microsoft should immediately terminate Lisa Monaco’s employment.”
Microsoft does indeed have myriad contracts with the US government, but it is far from certain that Monaco – or other senior Microsoft executives – have access to “highly sensitive information” that would compromise US national security.
Trump's post mentions incidents such as "Deep State Conspiracies" which he often claims are attempts to persecute him and his supporters.
Microsoft has not responded to Trump's call at the time of writing.
It is extremely unusual for elected officials to publicly request personnel changes at private businesses.
So this incident is an exciting moment for Microsoft, which has certainly observed several other huge American companies, such as ABC, moving quickly to accommodate Trump's wishes during his presidency.
Some of these desires came while companies were waiting for regulatory approval of deals or decisions.
Microsoft is not currently awaiting federal approval for any major initiatives.
Of course, the Trump administration could potentially threaten to cancel some contracts with Microsoft, which could benefit companies like Google, Oracle, and AWS – but it would also likely increase the cost for Washington in projects to transfer services from one provider to another.
Any decision to replace Microsoft services would run counter to the government's policy of reducing wasteful government spending.
Although the press releases will range from very select to rare, I said I'd pass...because sometimes the editors hide.
