Why the Tech Bros Support Trump

Donald Trump was seen as a pariah by many in the business community during his time in office, but as his path back to the White House becomes clearer, he has found new supporters among technology leaders.

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, became the biggest figure yet to back the former president this month, endorsing him and participating in fundraisers.

The move reflects weeks of growing support from the tech community, with influential venture capitalists and tech leaders including former Democratic donor Allison Huynh, investors Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz and cryptocurrency players the Winklevoss twins publicly backing Trump.

Support for Trump is hardly universal.

But it’s a sharp turn from a few years ago, when major companies distanced themselves from Trump in the weeks following the 2021 U.S. Capitol riot.

Coming from Silicon Valley, where Republicans once supported bans on same-sex marriage. Lost a senior executive positionthe changes are particularly significant.

At a cryptocurrency event at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Nicholas Longo, 27, of wealth management firm Fortuna Investors, said he felt stigmatized when he voted for Trump four years ago.

“In 2020, it would have been unwise for me to express my support for Donald Trump,” he said. Now, everything has changed.

The shift in political winds has already been evident on social media, where Musk and investor David Sacks, among others, have frequently mocked President Joe Biden.

But their decision to open their wallets to the Trump campaign will greatly expand their influence beyond traditional circles, which will have a significant impact on the election.

Support from tech leaders has helped Trump narrow the fundraising gap he faced with Biden just months ago.

“In late April, his campaign was lagging far behind and struggling,” said Sarah Bryner, director of research at OpenSecrets. “In the last eight weeks, the campaign has been a completely different beast.”

She said the pledges sent a strong signal that things were changing, noting that signs of victory in elections often help make up potential donors’ minds.

“Success breeds success,” she said.

Data from OpenSecrets Democrats have received a larger share of venture capital donations in recent elections, data from the Wall Street Journal show — and Biden’s decision to drop out of the race is expected to spark further interest.

Yet Trump’s new friends remain steadfast.

Musk has pledged to donate $45 million per month to the Trump campaign, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month, which would make him one of the largest donors this year.

The billionaire admitted he contributed to the campaign fundraiser, but deny He said his donation would reachMuch lower level“.

After Biden dropped out, Musk wrote on X, the social media platform he owns, formerly known as Twitter: “I believe in an America that maximizes individual freedom and merit. In the past, Democrats were supporters of this platform, but now the pendulum has swung to the Republican side.”

Analysts say support from key figures in the tech world This suggests that Trump is broadening his appeal.

“He convinced Republicans that he wasn’t as bad as they said he was … and now we’re seeing that amplify,” said Sal Russo, a veteran Republican consultant in California.

“Do I think he’s going to win Santa Clara County? No, but he’s going to do better,” Mr. Russo said.

Technology leaders say Fears of a Biden administration crackdown on cryptocurrencies and a cautious approach to artificial intelligence, such as a recent executive order requiring companies to comply with government AI safety standards.

Andreessen and Horowitz, whose firm invests in startups and also has big positions in cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence, wrote in a paper: “Bad government policy is now the biggest threat facing small tech.” Recent Articles“Now is the time to stand up.”

Musk’s decision to support Trump could be a stunning about-face for someone who has historically refused political donations.

He reportedly waited in line for six hours to shake Barack Obama’s hand, and as recently as 2018 he described himself as a political moderate.

In 2017, he became one of the first members to withdraw from the White House Business Council, parting ways with Trump over climate change policy issues.

His company, Tesla, makes electric cars, which Trump has repeatedly criticized as expensive and impractical.

Musk, however, has long bristled at oversight from financial regulators.

His criticism of Biden intensified two years ago when he was not invited to a White House business meeting. The snub led him to tell CNBC that he Felt Unfairly “ignored”.

On social media, he has increasingly engaged in debates about the coronavirus lockdown, the war in Ukraine, China policy and transgender issues.

Musk, whose SpaceX rocket company does billions of dollars in business with the government, also needs to consider his relationship with a possible Trump administration.

Democrats say the tech industry’s shift is motivated by self-interest and point out that Biden has proposed new taxes on multimillionaires and unrealized capital gains.

He has also alienated some with his support for organized labor and his administration’s pursuit of tech companies in antitrust and other cases.

Mark Cuban, a businessman who supports the Democratic Party, said Democrats’ leaning toward Trump is a “bitcoin play” — a bet that the value of the cryptocurrency could rise due to high inflation and political chaos, which Democrats believe a Trump presidency would lead to.

Neil Malhotra, a professor at Stanford Business School who has studied the political views of tech company founders, said it was a mistake to conflate “the most outspoken people on Twitter” with an entire industry — or even its elites, whose views historically span both parties.

A 2017 survey he and his colleagues conducted found that as a group, tech leaders aligned with Democrats on issues such as gay marriage, abortion and even taxes. However, they veered toward Republicans on their strong opposition to regulation.

He noted that new social issues such as policing, education and transgender rights have come to the fore since the survey. San Francisco has been a major battleground in those debates, sparking some backlash in the tech community.

“One suspects that the majority of the venture capital community is still centre-left,” Professor Malotella said. But he added: “There is definitely some movement towards the Republican Party.”

Evan Swarztrauber, an adviser to the Foundation for American Innovation think tank, said tech leaders are betting that Trump will not interfere with cryptocurrencies and artificial intelligence.

But this gamble is not without risk.

As president, Trump won praise from the business community by cutting taxes, appointing anti-labor officials to work on labor rights and generally rolling back regulations.

But he has taken a notably more interventionist approach to the economy and technology than previous administrations — launching a trade war with China, ordering a ban on TikTok and launching a number of ongoing antitrust lawsuits against tech companies.

Since then, he has pushed the Republican Party further in that direction — while moderating or changing his own positions on issues such as the TikTok ban and cryptocurrencies.

Jennifer Huddleston, a senior fellow for technology policy at the libertarian Cato Institute, said Trump may be changing his stance on some technology issues, noting that he is now the owner of a social media platform.

Trump’s vice presidential nominee, JD Vance, also previously worked in venture capital and received a key endorsement from PayPal’s Peter Thiel during his 2022 Senate campaign.

But she warned that distinguishing the interests of “big” and “small” tech companies would be difficult when it came to governance.

David Bruckman, a professor of political science at the University of California, Berkeley, said Trump has gained success in the business community by showing a more moderate stance than other members of the Republican Party on social issues such as abortion.

After boasting that he was the “proud man responsible” for repealing Roe v. Wade protections, Trump rejected suggestions he would support a nationwide ban pushed by many conservatives and said the matter should be left to states to decide.

But Professor Bruckman points out that Trump also took relatively moderate positions during his 2016 campaign, only to adopt more extreme policies once in office.

These hurt his popularity and ultimately damaged the Republican Party’s relationship with Wall Street, its traditional source of support.

“A lot of Trump’s outlandish policy ideas that tech and other business leaders have pinned their hopes on … just haven’t happened,” Professor Brockman said. “But they could happen.”

Outside of tech, Trump supports radical reforms, including mass deportations of illegal immigrants, deep cuts in government work, and a 10% tariff on all imports.

But Garrett Johnson, co-founder of the Foundation for American Innovation and now an executive at a venture-backed tech company, said he believes more of the tech and business elite are coming to accept Trump’s views over time.

“Trump single-handedly turned the threat posed by China to our country into a national conversation,” he said. “He was right, and others had to follow his lead.”

“So I absolutely think that’s part of the dynamic, part of the shift in tone,” he said. “Is he right about everything? No, but on a lot of the big issues, Trump is right.”

Jude Sheerin reports from the Republican National Convention