Elon Musk decided this year to buck the group-think so often on display with the elite.
As it turns out, Elon has unearthed an abiding biblical truth: that wealth is not, at the end of the day, everything.
Musk upended Twitter, turned it into X, fired a huge swath of radicalized staff, and has recently abandoned Newsome’s California over transgenderism. Elon has given Trump a big boost.
Imagine that, from the old Twitter that threw Trump off its platform in advance of the 2020 election.
Recently, Facebook/ META mega-geek Zuckerberg (having been hauled in the interim into Congress to defend his 2020 election interference) has said he isn’t endorsing anyone for November 2024’s vote. Even if he’s lying, Mark may not have the legal traction he enjoyed influencing the 2020 vote, and he knows it.
According to The Hill, he made statements like these:
“Despite declining to endorse either candidate, Zuckerberg appeared impressed by Trump’s reaction to the assassination attempt, describing it as “badass.”
“Seeing Donald Trump get up after getting shot in the face and pump his fist in the air with the American flag is one of the most badass things I’ve ever seen in my life,” he told Chang.
“On some level as an American, it’s like hard to not get kind of emotional about that spirit and that fight, and I think that that’s why a lot of people like the guy,” Zuckerberg added.”
Can you imagine Zuckerberg speaking this way in 2020? Perhaps he sees the writing on the wall. Silicon Valley has changed (California's Gov. Gavin Newsom also can take a share of credit for Democratic defection there):
There is also this, from The Hill:
The Meta CEO’s decision not to get involved in politics this cycle comes as the Facebook and Instagram parent company also seeks to move away from political content on its platforms.
Instagram announced in February it no longer would proactively recommend political content. If users still want to receive recommendations for political content, they have to adjust their settings.
“The main thing that I hear from people is that they actually want to see less political content on our services because they come to our services to connect with people,” Zuckerberg said. “So, that’s what we’re going to do.”
The Wall Street Journal, spokespaper for the corporate elite, is currently making a strained effort to find reasons to support Kamala Harris and also, per their traditional stance, to make Trump look bad -- in WSJ’s signature, sort of sneaky editorial/reportorial bait and switch:
Ms. Harris is shrewdly now pitching the campaign as the future versus the past, a new generation versus the old, contrasting her relative youth at age 59 with the 78-year-old Mr. Trump. That has often worked for Democrats—recall JFK, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Nikki Haley warned Republicans that the first party to select a nominee from the next generation would have a political advantage this year, and here we are.
What does the above WSJ’s “here we are” actually mean? If Kamala has the political advantage, it is yet to be proven — by a long shot.
Moreover, Harris is no match for WSJ’s recent darling, Nikki Haley, and there is not much of an argument that Haley’s devout donors will migrate in Kamala’s direction. WSJ does not endorse here, just implies. Even the WSJ has its editorial boundaries -- as the current polling does in no way support Kamala, and the paper always goes with its take on ‘the smart money.’ A lot of the smart money now is folding up the tent and moving to Trump.
Venture capitalist Doug Leon dropped Trump after Jan. 6. Apparently, he’s since been watching the conduct towards Jan. 6 detainees, and the conduct of Nancy Pelosi and Co. during the Jan. 6 ‘riots,’ for this and for likely much more, Leone has changed his mind back to Trump.
According to Business Insider:
Venture capitalist Doug Leone, a partner at and former head of Sequoia who Forbes estimates is worth $8.4 billion, announced in June that he'd once again be backing Trump — despite saying in 2021 that the former president had lost his support after the Jan. 6 attack on the capital. That month, he donated $2 million to the Right for America super PAC. He's also donated $1 million to the America PAC.
And there’s more:
Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, the cofounder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, announced to their employees that they'd be donating to Trump-aligned PACs.
Andreessen is worth $1.9 billion, according to Forbes. It's a shift for the Silicon Valley titan, who in 2016 said he'd be voting for Hilary Clinton.
Timothy Mellon, who is worth at least $1 billion, according to Forbes, is Trump's biggest donor yet this campaign cycle.
The secretive billionaire, who is heir to the Mellon banking fortune, has donated at least $75 million to Trump, including $50 million the day after his felony conviction. A former liberal, he has also been a major backer of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., donating $25 million to his campaign.
The Hill reports further defection from the elite ranks to Trump’s campaign:
Several former Democratic donors, such as Palantir adviser Jacob Helberg and Sequoia Capital partner Shaun Maguire, have also come out in support of Trump, adding to a growing cohort of conservatives in traditionally deep blue Silicon Valley.
You don’t always get what you pay for -- that may be what these uber-monied individuals have seen since 2020. Whatever their personal reasons for taking part in the significant and increasing numbers of defection by corporate and tech elite from the Biden/Harris administration, we have clearly a hopeful development here.
It appears that real change may be coming in the means and methods that many in our elite class will ‘lean in on’ before and during the 2024 election.
Let’s encourage them.
Image: Screen shot from Bloomberg News video, via YouTube