Dem
51
GOP
49
Meta's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has said that he will not be involved in the 2024 election in any way (other than allowing Donald Trump back on all his platforms). In 2020, he donated a lot of money to help election offices run their elections because many states simply didn't provide enough to do the job.
In addition, Zuckerberg said that he will not endorse any candidates this year, although he did comment in an interview with Bloomberg News: "Seeing Donald Trump get up after getting shot in the face and pump his first in the air with the American flag is one of the most badass things I've seen in my life." Why is Zuckerberg staying neutral? At the very least, he doesn't want Trump angry with him. An angry Trump might help TikTok keep operating in the U.S., thus providing some competition to Instagram, which is owned by Zuckerberg's company. A friendly Trump might make TikTok go away. In addition, earlier this month, Trump threatened to jail Zuckerberg. Trump posted: "We will pursue Election Fraudsters at levels never seen before, and they will be sent to prison for long periods of time. We already know who you are. DON'T DO IT ZUCKERBUCKS, be careful!" Maybe that's what caused Zuckerberg to decide to stay out of it. In view of the above item about Usha Vance, we'll also note that Zuckerberg's wife is Asian, and so his children are part-Asian. It's not impossible that a Trumper could try to do them harm. Hopefully their security is better than what the U.S.S.S. provides.
In contrast to Zuckerberg, who is keeping his wallet closed, Elon Musk has said he will donate $45 million per month to Donald Trump. Also on team Trump are Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, Peter Thiel and David Sacks. So are former Democratic donors Jacob Helberg and Shaun Maguire.
Incidentally, Sacks got some of the wrong sort of attention yesterday when he parroted a ridiculous Republican talking point that Kamala Harris is guilty of a coup against Joe Biden. This is ridiculous because: (1) Biden stepped aside willingly, (2) the voters who supported Biden actually voted for delegates, whose stated mission includes making choices that "in all good conscience reflect the sentiments of those who elected them" and (3) the voters who supported Biden also voted for Harris, and with the well-established understanding that she might end up replacing him, one way or another.
Anyhow, here is what Sacks tweeted:
One candidate survived assassination. The other staged a coup. Your choice, America.
You can probably see where this is headed. Sacks was widely mocked, with hundreds of people responding with tweets along the lines of: "I'm confused. Those are both Donald Trump, right?" Game, set and match.
Why are so many tech billionaires suddenly for Trump? One possible reason is they know if they aren't, he could punish them if he wins, because he doesn't give a hoot about the Constitution or the law. They know that the Democrats won't decide to punish people because they were not supporters. In addition, many tech billionaires are libertarians and don't like all the diversity laws California has passed. They want to hire the best people they can find and if they believe the best people are all white men plus a smattering of Indian men, so be it. They don't like having to hire women or minorities just to avoid getting sued. They feel that a Trump administration could pass laws making all forms of affirmative action illegal and they would love that. They want to be freed from D.E.I. and all that goes with it. Note, incidentally, that Mark Cuban, who was a tech billionaire before any of these other folks were, has said D.E.I. initiatives have actually helped his bottom line. So, when people like Thiel and Sacks gripe about this issue, there may be a fair bit of unspoken subtext (e.g., they are racists, or they are macho and don't like to be told what to do).
This said, most of the movers and shakers, and nearly all of the rank and file, in Silicon Valley are Democrats. It's just a handful of very high-profile players who are (often suddenly) Republicans. There are also plenty of top tech people who are for the Democratic ticket, including LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, former CEO of Zynga Mark Pincus, and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla. The fact that a handful of Silicon Valley bigwigs are for Trump is newsworthy because it is so rare. (V)