2024-08-05 02:57:43
Former US president and current candidate for the post, Donald Trump, used to be persona non grata among the tech titans of Silicon Valley. This was clearly reflected in the direction of financial support from Silicon Valley during the past two US presidential races. But those times are obviously long gone.
Almost all of the dollars Silicon Valley elites spent in 2016 went to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. And in 2020, the overwhelming majority went to Joe Biden’s campaign.
The few tech entrepreneurs who supported Trump in the last election often didn’t talk about it openly for fear of hurting their businesses. But those times are obviously long gone. Currently, many big names in the tech scene are openly rooting for Trump. And with them their dollars.
As the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported last week, billionaire Elon Musk, who previously supported Democrats including Biden, Clinton and Barack Obama, is now taking sides. Starting in July, he plans to send $45 million a month to one of the political action committees known as super PACs, which are exempt from otherwise strict campaign finance rules. According to the WSJ, America PAC, founded in June, is supposed to campaign among voters in favor of Trump, especially in those states where the results of Republicans and Democrats tend to be tight.
At the July Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, another prominent technology investor and entrepreneur, David Sacks, also supported Trump. At the same time, he previously stated that Trump’s actions during the riot in the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 disqualify him from running for the presidency again. Billionaires Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, the twins who co-founded the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange ten years ago (both are known, among other things, for accusing Mark Zuckerberg of stealing the idea for the social network Facebook) have also expressed their support for Trump. Joe Lonsdale, co-founder of Palantir Technologies, which specializes in data mining and artificial intelligence, also stood up for Trump. And for example, one of the largest venture capital firms in Silicon Valley, Andreessen Horowitz, recently stated that it is donating large sums to his presidential campaign.
It is the statements of its bosses Ben Horowitz and Mark Andreessen that show why many technology entrepreneurs have changed their minds in recent years. In a blog post published in June, they wrote that “bad government policy is now the number one threat to small tech companies,” i.e. startups, which they both see as the engine of the American economy. They have expressed concern about over-regulation, particularly in the case of cryptocurrencies, and proposals to tax unrealized capital gains.
They also criticized the government for not supporting start-ups over established firms in critical sectors such as defense and intelligence. “The future of our business, the future of . . . new technology, and the future of America is literally at stake,” Horowitz said recently, admitting he’d upset his friends and family, but insisting, “We think Donald Trump is really the right choice.” .”
Why Democrats Are Annoying Silicon Valley
The Biden administration has evidently upset many Silicon Valley entrepreneurs with its tough approach to their businesses. In recent years, for example, it has filed large-scale antitrust lawsuits against the four giants, which are Apple, Google (now known as Alphabet), Meta and Amazon. In addition, since the fall of the FTX crypto exchange and its founder Sam Bankman-Fried, the Democratic cabinet has also taken action against cryptocurrencies – filing lawsuits against the companies Coinbase and Binance and trying to enforce stricter regulation of the industry.
Trump, on the other hand, promises businessmen that after his election he will implement a number of measures that should be beneficial for them. According to the Washington Post, he promised donors at charity events that he would cut corporate taxes and also made a U-turn on cryptocurrency. In his first term, he considered them a “fraud”. However, the Republican Party has been supporting crypto-innovation ever since he ran for the presidency again.
That doesn’t mean, however, that all tech entrepreneurs are rooting for Trump. By most indications, Silicon Valley is still overwhelmingly Democratic. A recent analysis by Wired magazine, for example, found that of the twenty firms that made the most political contributions from there, twice as much money went to Democrats as to Republicans.
Democrats still have strong support in the strategic California agglomeration in the current campaign, according to a WSJ analysis of Federal Election Commission data. Major donors include the former executive chairman of Alphabet Eric Schmidt and technology investors Laurene Powell Jobs, John Doerr and Ron Conway. LinkedIn co-founder and venture capitalist Reid Hoffman alone has donated more than eight million dollars to support Biden’s re-election effort.
Trump’s campaign raises millions
Still, the support Trump is getting from several wealthy Silicon Valley backers is troubling for Democrats. According to the latest campaign finance reports, by the end of May, Trump had already surpassed former Democratic candidate Joe Biden in contributions from donors. While Biden had $91.6 million in campaign cash, Trump collected $25 million more.
But Biden’s weekend decision to withdraw from the election race and support Vice President Kamala Harris instead can significantly mess with the whole situation. It was shown already in the first hours after Biden’s announcement, when small donors sent over a hundred million dollars to American Democrats. This was announced on Monday morning by the Act Blue organization, which collects money for the Democrats. According to her, it was “the biggest day of the 2024 election cycle” in terms of fundraising.
Trump, on the other hand, should be helped by the recent unsuccessful assassination attempt on his person in collecting campaign contributions, as he will undoubtedly make powerful use of it in terms of marketing. His campaign website is already dominated by a photo from a campaign rally where he was shot in the ear, raising his fist belligerently in the air with blood on his face.
Video: “The presidential election will be decided by how the workers of the three states sleep,” claims the publicist (July 26, 2024)
Spotlight Aktuálně.cz – Michael Durčák | Video: Team Spotlight