Other billionaires, once anti-Trump, are silent today: fear or lack of enthusiasm for Kamala? This applies to Berkshire’s Warren Buffett, the “Oracle of Omaha”, to Google co-founder Sergey Brin (8 years ago “deeply offended by the election of Trump”, today he is silent). Steve Ballmer (former CEO of Microsoft) and Ray Dalio (head of Bridgewater, the world’s largest hedge fund) are also silent.
The Trump-Harris head-to-head race inflames and divides America, but it also divides America’s billionaires. In sometimes surprising or extreme ways. The most dedicated is Elon Musk, who supports the former president with tens (perhaps hundreds) of millions of dollars in donations and uses his network, X, to support and mock Kamala Harris. Elon appears more and more often on stage at Trump’s rallies (he will be with him at Madison Square Garden in New York). Tim Walz (Harris’ deputy) says he is the real candidate to be Donald’s deputy, not JD Vance.
At the other end we find Jeff Bezos, the Amazon tycoon and Musk’s adversary who has always mocked him. Trump has always considered him an enemy, especially as the owner of the Washington Post, a progressive newspaper. In the past, Bezos has pushed back, but a few months ago he changed his tone, declaring, hours after Butler’s attack, that “Trump showed incredible courage under fire from an assassin.”
And yesterday, he forced the editorial board of his newspaper not to endorse Kamala Harris, breaking with a tradition spanning half a century. The company’s CEO, Will Lewis, talks about a return to the roots without giving political indications, but many see it as Bezos’ capitulation to Trump’s threats of retaliation: The Washington Post continues to support candidates for local elections. Other billionaires, once anti-Trump, are silent today: fear or lack of enthusiasm for Kamala? This applies to Berkshire’s Warren Buffett, the “Oracle of Omaha”, to Google co-founder Sergey Brin (8 years ago “deeply offended by the election of Trump”, today he is silent). Steve Ballmer (former CEO of Microsoft) and Ray Dalio (head of Bridgewater, the world’s largest hedge fund) are also silent.
Then the controversial cases of Mark Zuckerberg (the Democrat, named by Trump as an enemy, now says he doesn’t want to get involved in politics, and when Donald claimed that the Facebook founder told him he didn’t want to vote Democrat this time, he was limited to a laconic denial).
Jamie Dimon, the Democratic banker who headed the giant JP Morgan Chase for twenty years, had made noise months ago by inviting people not to see only the negative aspects of Trump’s policies. When the former president posted a fake endorsement on his social media, Dimon denied it, saying he doesn’t take sides (he probably remains a Democrat at heart, as does his wife who supports Kamala). Wall Street is said to support Trump’s promise of lower taxes for businesses and the wealthy, but Kamala’s list of billionaire donors, published by Forbes, is longer than Trump’s (81 to 52). Twelve of them explained in a letter the choice for the Democrats: “Protection of the rule of law, stability, constructive business environment, more important than taxes”.
At the head of Kamala’s fans is said to be Bill Gates, who according to the New York Times has donated 50 million dollars, but he does not confirm it and adds: “I don’t tell others how to vote.” Other major sponsors of Harris are Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn), Reed Hastings (Netflix), Eric Schmidt (former head of Google), George Soros and Michael Bloomberg. Among the billionaires for Harris are Taylor Swift, Bruce Springsteen, director Steven Spielberg and basketball star Magic Johnson. With Trump, in addition to Musk, the head of Blackstone Steven Schwarzman, Paul Singer of the Elliott fund, Steve Wynn, the king of casinos in Las Vegas, Larry Ellison (Oracle), Roger Penske (automobiles) and Marc Andreessen, the great venture capitalist of Silicon Valley .
