Former President Trump went to the Democratic stronghold of San Francisco last week to meet with a growing group of conservative technology executives, as the Republican Party appears to be making inroads in the traditionally deep blue Silicon Valley.
At a fundraiser hosted Thursday night by venture capitalists David Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya, Trump raised millions by courting prominent figures in the technology and cryptocurrency industries.
While some in Silicon Valley have long supported Republicans, a growing number of people who previously donated to Democrats now support Trump’s candidacy against President Biden.
Shaun Maguire, a partner at venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, spoke out in support of the former president last month after he was convicted of 34 criminal counts of falsifying business records.
“I just donated $300,000 to President Trump,” Maguire wrote in a post on social platform X. “The timing is not a coincidence.”
Maguire noted in a lengthy post explaining his decision that he had previously donated to and voted for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Although he said he was “disillusioned and didn’t vote” in 2020, records show the venture capitalist continued to financially support Democratic candidates in lower-level races during that election cycle, according to campaign finance tracker OpenSecrets .
“Now, in 2024, I believe this is one of the most important elections of my lifetime and I am supporting Trump,” Maguire added.
Technical consultant Jacob Helberg, who participated in last Thursday’s fundraiser, has also been a prominent Democratic donor, contributing to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Vice President Harris and even Biden as they vied for the Democratic nomination for 2020.
However, the tide appears to have turned in late 2021 when Helberg began donating to several Republicans, including Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters, Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas), and Sen. Tom Cotton (Ark.), according to OpenSecrets.
Helberg has since donated $1 million to Trump’s campaign, according to The Washington Post.
“Last night, there was energy and enthusiasm for a Republican presidential candidate unlike anything I’ve seen in Silicon Valley,” Helberg said in a statement after the fundraiser for the former president in San Francisco.
“This event was proof that President Trump’s campaign is creating a generational realignment among tech founders, Millennials, gays and Jewish Americans that transcends party lines and makes him more competitive in even the most traditionally traditional communities. blue,” he added.
Wealthy tech entrepreneurs were once “very left” on most issues beyond regulation, said Neil Malhotra, a professor of political economy at the Stanford Graduate School of Business who interviewed hundreds of technology leaders for a 2017 paper.
“There have been prominent people, both in the venture capital community and the founding community, who have swung to the right since about 2020,” Malhotra told The Hill.
“But we don’t know if this is representative of a broader group of people, or if it’s just a small, prominent group of people that may or may not reflect a kind of canary in the coal mine,” he added.
The Biden administration’s aggressive regulation of big tech companies, as well as its tentative approach to cryptocurrencies, may be contributing to this shift among some tech leaders, Malhotra said.
The Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission have filed massive antitrust lawsuits against Google, Amazon and Apple under Biden. However, antitrust pressure began under Trump, who also filed lawsuits against Google and Meta.
Biden has also angered some in the technology world with his administration’s approach to crypto regulation.
The president recently vetoed a congressional resolution that sought to overturn a Securities and Exchange Commission rule that was challenged by the crypto industry.
He also declined to support the Financial Technology and Innovation for the 21st Century Act, which sought to redefine the classification of digital assets, although Biden did not explicitly say he would veto the legislation.
“There has always been a vibe in Silicon Valley: let us create, let us produce, and leave us alone. We don’t believe we should respond, or we don’t believe we need to respond, to some of the most troubling consequences of our technological creations,” Democratic strategist Rodell Mollineau told The Hill.
“In Trump, I think they see someone who is just going to leave them alone, let them do whatever they want, let them continue to create without any interference,” he said.
Despite Trump’s antitrust efforts in his first term, Mollineau noted that the former president has recently sought to lure business leaders back into his camp with promises of lighter regulation and tax cuts.
Republican lawmakers are preparing a legislative scramble to expand key provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Trump’s tax cut bill, which expires at the end of 2025.
A full GOP sweep of the White House and Congress would give Republicans the opportunity to revamp several aspects of the law strongly supported by big business and the financial sector, including a 21 percent corporate tax rate.
The TCJA also lowered personal income taxes across the board, meaning tax bills for higher earners could soar if Democrats avoid a red wave.
“This is basically your speech to corporate America, so it wouldn’t surprise me if this is your speech to Silicon Valley: ‘Hey, support me and I’ll leave you alone,’” Mollineau said.
While some money in Silicon Valley may have shifted to Trump, a substantial amount of money is “still betting on Biden,” he added.
Venture capitalists Vinod Khosla and Michael Moritz, Microsoft VP and President Brad Smith, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, former Meta chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, and former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, are among those in Silicon Valley who support the president’s re-election bid, according to the Post and Yahoo Finance.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
