London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Sep 30, 2025

Brad Smith, president of Microsoft Corp

Trump adviser asked Microsoft why it wouldn’t spy for the US

An adviser to US President Donald Trump once questioned Microsoft Corp for not spying on its users around the world on behalf of the government, the software giant’s president has revealed, as Washington continues its campaign against China’s Huawei Technologies over national security concerns.

“As an American company, why won’t you agree to help the US government spy on people in other countries?” Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president and chief legal officer, recounted how he was asked by the adviser on a trip to Washington. That inquiry is highlighted in Smith’s new book, Tools and Weapons: The Promise and the Peril of the Digital Age, without naming the person or other details about that visit to the US capital.

Smith wrote that he responded by shifting the question to Trump Hotels, which had opened new properties at the time of the meeting in the Middle East and in Pennsylvania Avenue, near the White House. “Are these hotels going to spy on people from other countries who stay there?” Smith said. “It doesn’t seem like it would be good for the family business.” The Trump adviser nodded in agreement, according to the book.

Tools and Weapons, which was released by UK-based publishers Penguin Press and Hodder & Stoughton on Tuesday, analyses the benefits and risks from advances in technology as well as Microsoft’s position in major issues, from privacy and security to geopolitics.

A Microsoft representative did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment about Smith’s meeting with the Trump adviser.

The revelation about the Trump adviser’s inquiry in Tools and Weapons showed that the US continues to have its own issues with surveillance and cybersecurity, despite Washington’s accusations that products from telecommunications equipment manufacturer Huawei can be used to spy for Beijing. Huawei, caught in the middle of an escalating US-China trade war, has strenuously and repeatedly denied the allegations, saying that it is not a proxy for Beijing’s security apparatus.

The Trump administration, meanwhile, stepped up its campaign against Huawei, the world’s largest telecoms equipment supplier, by adding the company to the US government’s trade blacklist in May. That has restricted the Shenzhen-based company from buying hardware, software and services from American hi-tech firms, including Qualcomm, Google and Microsoft.

On August 19, the US extended a deadline allowing American technology suppliers to sell components to Huawei for another 90 days. Since then, however, the much-anticipated reprieve has provided more confusion than clarity.

Earlier that same month, the Trump administration announced a ban on US federal agencies buying equipment and services
from a group of Chinese hi-tech companies, including Huawei, ZTE Corp and Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology, because of national security concerns.

Smith, who joined Microsoft in 1993, described the US trade ban on Huawei as unfair and un-American, according to a report by weekly magazine Bloomberg Businessweek. He said Huawei’s blacklisting should not have been made “without a sound basis in fact, logic and the rule of law”.

In his new book, Smith wrote China is notorious for making domestic market access difficult for foreign hi-tech companies, with services from Google and Facebook blocked in the world’s second largest economy. The Microsoft president, however, also indicated that the US was increasingly building up barriers to entry, as Washington’s concerns over Chinese influence continued to grow.

There is an “increasing possibility that American officials will seek to block the export of a growing number of vital technology products, not just to China but to a growing set of other countries”, wrote Smith, adding that such a move would jeopardise US competitiveness in the global market. “It’s impossible to pursue global leadership if products can’t leave the United States.”

In addition, Smith indicated the challenges from the drastically “different tastes in technology” in China and the US.

When Microsoft introduced social chatbot XiaoIce – pronounced Shao-Ice – in the US in 2016 under the name “Tay”, pop singer Taylor Swift threatened to take legal action over the use of her name. The company was forced to shut down the chatbot, developed by Microsoft’s Chinese researchers and first released on the mainland in 2014, when it started posting offensive and racist tweets less than 24 hours since its launch, after being corrupted by internet trolls who interacted with it.

“Tay was but one example of differing cultural practices across the Pacific,” Smith wrote.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
Explosive Email Shows Sarah Ferguson Begged Forgiveness from Jeffrey Epstein After Taking His Money
×