Donald Trump meeting 'like drinking a bottle of gin then waterboarding yourself', says ex-Twitter chief Dick Costolo

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox

Get our free Inside Washington email

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy

Meeting with Donald Trump to discuss technology is like drinking a whole bottle of gin and then being waterboarded, Twitter's former chief executive has claimed.

Mr Trump is reportedly planning to hold a second summit with leaders in the sector, plus venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, following an initial such encounter last December.

Dick Costolo, who headed Twitter between 2010 and 2015, tweeted: "If you don't get invited to this meeting and want to know what it was like, just drink a bottle of gin and then waterboard yourself."

Mr Trump has challenged leaders in the field over hiring, immigration and manufacturing in the past as a result of his "America first" policy.

And when he pulled the US out of the Paris climate accord earlier this month, Tesla chief executive Elon Musk stepped down from his advisory committee role in protest.

A number of Silicon Valley leaders spoke out against the withdrawal.

Mr Trump was criticised for allowing his children Ivanka, Don Jr and Eric to sit in on the first meeting, which took place before his inauguration.

It was attended by a who's-who of industry figures including Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg, Apple's Tim Cook, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Microsoft chief Satya Nadella and Larry Page, of Google's parent company Alphabet.

The meeting had been chaired and organised by billionaire investor and Facebook board member Peter Thiel, as well as Mr Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

Ivanka Trump and Mr Kushner are now White House advisers, while Mr Trump's sons run the family business.