Microsoft on Monday maintained its no-comment posture on US President Donald Trump's "opinion" that Lisa Monaco, MS president of global affairs, should be urgently fired.
Trump on Friday categorised Monaco among those he holds responsible for pursuing him for apparently mishandling classified information, and for his role in the January 6th riot in Washington.
"She is a menace to U.S. National Security, especially given the major contracts that Microsoft has with the United States Government," said Trump on Truth Social.
"It is my opinion that Microsoft should immediately terminate the employment of Lisa Monaco."
Security uncleared
Monaco was a national security adviser to Barack Obama and a deputy Attorney General in Joe Biden's administration. In March, her name was third on a list of people Trump ordered stripped of security clearance and banned from all US federal properties, alongside the likes of Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton, and all of Biden's family.
Microsoft has offered no comment on Trump's opinion since. Monaco is active on LinkedIn, but has said nothing either.
Monaco's work has focused heavily on Europe since her midyear appointment.
"My first 50 days have been energizing to say the least. Most recently in the UK and Denmark, I met with government leaders, customers, and our Microsoft teams…" she said last month. "I toured our London datacenter and visited our quantum lab in Copenhagen, where we’re collaborating with researchers to build a scalable quantum computer."
European data sovereignty
A week ago in Brussels, she said, she spoke to European leaders about "questions that matter most for digital resilience, data sovereignty, and responsible innovation."
Microsoft stepped up its assurances to European cloud users, and governments in particular, roughly at the same time as it hired Monaco, moving from vows of GDPR compliance in late 2022 to an extraordinary promise this April that it would entirely insulate European data from American political interference.
"When necessary, we’re prepared to go to court," said MS president Brad Smith at the time, referring to the company successfully challenging Trump "to uphold the rights of employees who are immigrants" – during Trump's first term.
More recently, tech companies have adopted a more placatory stance towards Trump than during his first term, with some success. In August, Trump called for the resignation of Intel president Lip-Bu Tan on security grounds. After a series of meetings, Trump later praised his leadership instead.
In that case, Intel responded to Trump's calls within hours, publicly and firmly backing Tan's leadership.
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