Why Elon Musk and other Silicon Valley billionaires are backing Trump
Between campaign donations and super-PAC creations, billionaires have always played their hand in presidential elections. However, in this election cycle between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, their influence is felt more than ever. Mark Cuban has been a staunch surrogate for the Harris campaign. Elon Musk has been rallying for Trump. The difference between the two campaigns is that the GOP billionaire backers with business backgrounds have been pushing a more political approach to their endorsements. Why?
On the latest episode of Capitol Gains, Yahoo Finance's Rachelle Akuffo, Washington Correspondent Ben Werschkul, and Senior Columnist Rick Newman discuss the billionaires investing their money into the Trump campaign and their motivations for doing so.
Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Marc Andreessen are key players Newman dubs the "Silicon Valley Trump Mafia." “I think these guys basically are trying to be American oligarchs,” he says. They've got fame, they've got more money than they know what to do with, and they want power. I think they sense that Trump is manipulable and if they get behind him, he will do their bidding in the White House.”
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Musk recently donated a whopping $75 million to a pro-Trump group to help further efforts, especially in Pennsylvania. “It's an open question of whether this group can bring out the vote, in the way that other groups can’t,” Werschkul says. “So if Trump ends up over-performing in Pennsylvania, then Musk gets a lot of credit. If it’s underperforming, there might be a lot of questions raised.”
To find out more, listen to the full episode of Capitol Gains here.
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This post was written by Lauren Pokedoff.