Register by Jan 13 to save on passes and connect with marketers from Uber, Bose and more
The definitive guide to what’s in and out (so far) in Trump’s second presidential term
President Donald Trump’s second presidential term — from the TikTok back-and-forth, to the placement of Big Tech execs both at his inauguration and in the Oval Office — has already been notable. Here’s where the ad industry stands with all of this (so far).

In
Big Tech engineering free speech with government support
Out
Big Tech defending free speech amid government pressure
In
FTC going after Big Tech’s censorship cartel
Out
FTC going after Big Tech’s surveillance capitalism
In
Tech oligarchy
Out
Media oligarchy
In
Media accommodating President Trump
Out
Media resisting President Trump

In
President Trump saving TikTok
Out
President Biden not saving TikTok
In
Trump 2.0: grabbing TikTok from ByteDance and giving it to Larry Ellison or Elon Musk
Out
Trump 1.0: grabbing TikTok from ByteDance and giving it to Larry Ellison or Walmart
In
Platforming President Trump
Out
De-platforming President Trump
In
Advertisers returning to X
Out
Advertisers leaving X

In
Community Notes
Out
Professional fact checkers
In
Brand advocates of divisive platforms
Out
Brand boycotts of divisive platforms
In
Manosphere
Out
Black Twitter

In
CMOs as pawns
Out
CMOs as politicians
In
DEI FTL
Out
DEI FTW
In
Advertisers chasing conservative values
Out
Advertisers chasing profit through purpose
In
Chief business officers
Out
Chief diversity officers

In
Boom times for M&A
Out
Tricky times for M&A
In
Meme coins
Out
Meme stock
More in Marketing
Inside the brand and agency scramble for first-party data in the AI era
Brands are moving faster to own first-party data as AI and privacy changes alter the digital advertising landscape.
Walmart Connect takes a play out of the Amazon playbook to make agentic AI the next battleground in retail media
The next retail media war is between Walmart Connect’s Sparky and Amazon’s Rufus, driven by agentic AI and first-party data.
What does media spend look like for 2026? It could be worse — and it might be
Forecasts for 2026 media spend range from 6.6% on the lower end to over 10% but the primary beneficiaries will be commerce, social and search.