Cisco CEO Robbins Talks 'Incredibly Constructive Meeting' And 'Laughs' With Donald Trump
Robbins On Trump
Last month, some of the world's top technology leaders met with President-elect Donald Trump and his team for a roundtable discussion in New York. Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins is shining some light on what occurred during the meeting, which featured leaders such as Apple CEO Tim Cook and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos,.
"It was an incredibly constructive meeting, and I think everyone that walked in that room put behind them whatever their political views were during the election," said Robbins in an interview with Business Insider at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland Wednesday. "I came out, from a business perspective, very optimistic."
Here are the five highlights from the Trump meeting that Robbins discussed.
Taxes, Trade, Job Creation Discussed
Robbins said the discussions during the meeting with Trump and his team – which included Vice President-elect Mike Pence, Trump's chief strategist and senior counselor Steve Bannon, as well as Trump's children Eric, Ivanka and Donald Trump, Jr., to name a few – revolved around issues such as taxes and trade.
"I'll say that even the Trump team — everyone is looking forward at how we work together to solve challenges, to create jobs, and to do the things that need to be done, again this was particularly focused on the U.S. market. We discussed issues of tax, we discussed trade, we discussed immigration, we discussed innovation and entrepreneurship, job creation, and it was a very engaging discussion," Robbins told Business Insider.
"Lots Of Laughs"
Although President-elect Trump has been known to feud with the technology industry, such as asking his supporters to boycott Apple over the company's iPhone encryption stance, Robbins said there was a lot of laughs during the meeting.
"There was a lot of interactive dialogue. Lots of laughs. So it was a very constructive meeting," said Robbins.
Keeping The 'Best And Brightest'
With President-elect Trump's strong stance on immigration, H1-B visa reform and border protection, Robbins said he told Trump that the issues shouldn't be all tied together.
"One of the things that we actually talked about when meeting the President-elect was to separate the two issues. There's immigration control and border issues, and then there's high-skilled immigration. And they're two different issues, and he agreed with that," Robbins told Business Insider. "I think that when I talk to leaders of other countries around the world, everyone is trying to think through what their high-skilled immigration strategy is. Because everyone is struggling to have the best and brightest working inside their borders."
Political Views Cast Aside
Despite a highly contentious 2016 presidential election, Robbins said the tech leaders who attended the summit casted their political views aside to focus on economic growth.
"It was an incredibly constructive meeting, and I think everyone that walked in that room put behind them whatever their political views were during the election," said Robbins.
Robbins Came Out 'Very Optimistic' About Economy
Robbins said he came out of the meeting "very optimistic" about the future of the U.S. and global economy.
"I came out, from a business perspective, very optimistic about what it might mean for global business because the U.S. and the global economy are so intertwined that you can't impact them independent of each other," he said. "So I think the changes that are being contemplated will not only be good for the US, but will also be good for the global economy."