Am Wochenende hat es Elon Musk offiziell gemacht: Donald Trump habe seine „volle Unterstützung“ im laufenden Präsidentenwahlkampf, verkündete der Vorstandschef des Elektroautoherstellers Tesla auf der ihm gehörenden Plattform X. Dies kam kurz nach dem Attentat auf Trump, und Musk schrieb bewundernd, Amerika habe seit langer Zeit keinen Kandidaten für das Präsidentenamt mehr gehabt, der so „tough“ sei.
Wie sich nun herausstellt, will Musk es nicht bei schmeichelnden Worten für Trump belassen, sondern auch seinen gewaltigen Reichtum nutzen, um seinem bevorzugten Kandidaten zu helfen. Nach einem Bericht des „Wall Street Journal“ will er bis zur Wahl im November 45 Millionen Dollar im Monat an eine kürzlich gegründete Organisation spenden, die sich im Wahlkampf für Trump einsetzt. Das hieße, er würde weit mehr als 100 Millionen Dollar ausgeben, um Trump zurück ins Weiße Haus zu verhelfen – auch für amerikanische Verhältnisse eine gewaltige Summe.
The largest known donation in the current election campaign so far came from Timothy Mellon of the Mellon banking family, who recently gave $50 million to Trump’s campaign. These patrons are also putting Trump, who has long lagged behind his rival Joe Biden in terms of campaign donations, in an increasingly better financial position. This is all the more painful for the incumbent president as there are still doubts about his candidacy after a failed television debate with Trump. According to media reports, some major donors have even said they would freeze their donations if Biden remains the Democratic candidate.
Trump can also rely on Musk’s close companions
Trump not only has Musk himself on his side, but also a circle of close associates around the Tesla boss. The most eloquent of these is David Sacks, an entrepreneur and investor who, like Musk, originally comes from South Africa. Musk and Sacks have known each other for a long time; they are both part of the so-called Paypal Mafia, the network of founders and former executives from the early years of the payment service who later went on to be successful with other companies.
Both Musk and Sacks have changed their political views in recent years. Musk says he voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020, Sacks supported Clinton’s election campaign financially and clearly distanced himself from Trump after the storming of the Capitol in January 2021. He said at the time that Trump had “disqualified himself” from ever running for national political office again. But now he is striking a completely different tone.
After the attack on Saturday, he hailed Trump as a “hero” and on Monday evening he even had a prominent speaking slot at the Republican Party Convention in Milwaukee. A few weeks ago he hosted a dinner with Trump at his villa in San Francisco to raise money for him. He is also one of the moderators of the podcast “All-In”, which is widely listened to in the technology industry. Trump was recently a guest there. Sacks has also already financially supported JD Vance, who has now been nominated by Trump as his candidate for vice president – and on Monday expressly welcomed his appointment.
Another prominent Trump supporter in Musk’s circle is Joe Lonsdale. According to a report in the New York Times, he is one of the driving forces behind the organization to which Musk’s campaign donations are to go. It is called America Pac and is a so-called Super Pac, a political action committee that supports candidates without being directly part of their campaign team.
Lonsdale recently wrote in a guest article for the Economist that Trump is the only candidate in the race who can bring back “government competence.” Lonsdale also knows Musk from his Paypal days, where he did a short internship in 2002 before the payment service was sold to eBay. He was then one of the co-founders of the software company Palantir, and today he is primarily active as an investor. He also encouraged Musk to buy the online platform Twitter, now renamed X, almost two years ago. One of his co-founders at Palantir was Peter Thiel, the German-born investor who is also considered part of the Paypal mafia. He supported Trump in the 2016 election campaign and appeared at the Republican Party convention at the time, but is holding back in this year’s election campaign. He has said that while he will probably reluctantly vote for Trump, he will not donate to him.
Sharp criticism of Joe Biden
David Sacks used his appearance at the party convention to sharply and maliciously criticize Joe Biden. Biden is “the symbol of an America in decline.” The country needs a president who is “strong and smart” and not “sleepy and senile.” There must be someone in the White House who can take action, even if a crisis breaks out after it is time for Biden to sleep. With “wasteful and unnecessary government programs,” Biden has also caused the worst inflation in decades. Sacks attacked the US president particularly harshly with regard to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He accused him of “provoking” this war with talks about NATO expansion, and of hundreds of billions of taxpayers’ money that had been spent to support Ukraine having “gone up in smoke.” Sacks has repeatedly spoken out about the war in Ukraine in the past, showing sympathy for the Russian side.
The technology scene is traditionally close to the Democratic Party, and employees of tech companies still donate significantly more to them than to Republicans. This makes the clear turn of Musk & Co. towards Trump all the more remarkable. And David Sacks apparently believes he is part of a broader movement. He recently wrote on the platform X: “Trump has many supporters in Silicon Valley. Many are just afraid to admit it.” Of course, there are still supporters of Biden and the Democratic Party in Musk’s circle. One of the most prominent is Reid Hoffman, an investor and one of the co-founders of the career network Linkedin. He is also part of the Paypal mafia and has known Musk for a long time.
Musk’s political commitment could pay off with a direct connection to the White House if Trump is actually elected. The Wall Street Journal recently wrote that Trump had spoken to the Tesla boss about a possible advisory role in the government if he won the election. There had been talk of a formal position in areas such as economic or immigration policy. There is already apparently a lively exchange between the two men. At Tesla’s annual general meeting in June, Musk said that Trump often calls him “out of the blue.”
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