Name: Why Elon Musk and His Silicon Valley Allies Now Want Trump to Win
Uploaded: 2024-11-01T14:06:00Z
Duration: 9 min 6 s
Description: Big tech overwhelmingly leans blue, but a small faction of leaders, including Elon Musk, has begun lending their influence and pocketbooks to support Donald Trump. WSJ explains what is behind the shift.

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Big tech overwhelmingly leans blue, but a small faction of leaders, including Elon Musk, has begun lending their influence and pocketbooks to support Donald Trump. WSJ explains what is behind the shift. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo

https://m.wsj.net/video/20241101/94a859b9-53fc-4db7-af2d-05b74c772b1e/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Big tech overwhelmingly leans blue, but a small faction of leaders, including Elon Musk, has begun lending their influence and pocketbooks to support Donald Trump. WSJ explains what is behind the shift.

Why Elon Musk and His Silicon Valley Allies Now Want Trump to Win

Narrator: In the final weeks of the presidential election, Elon Musk has become one of former president Donald Trump's most powerful allies.

I'm not just MAGA, I'm dark, gothic MAGA.

Narrator: It's a stark change from 2015 when he told Vanity Fair that Trump winning the nomination.

Yeah, that would be good.

Narrator: While Vice President Kamala Harris has broad support in Silicon Valley, Musk is part of a small group of tech leaders and investors that have become more supportive of Trump over the last eight years. As they see it, Trump's Republican party is...

More welcoming of bold ideas and what we call kind of American dynamism.

I think if these big names are coming out in support of Donald Trump, but also opening their pocketbooks, that could have lasting effects on any election.

Narrator: Here's the philosophy, policies, and relationships behind the shift and what it means for Silicon Valley and the election. To understand the move to the right, you have to start here with some tech leaders that were part of a group known as the PayPal Mafia. It's a collection of former employees and founders of PayPal, many of which have gone on to build some of tech's most influential companies.

They're very well connected in the Valley. These are people that are considered thought leaders in the tech space.

Narrator: This group varies on politics. Several lean Democratic like Reid Hoffman, one of Harris's biggest supporters this year.

She, again, growing up through California, saw all the positives about entrepreneurship and technology.

Narrator: But Peter Thiel has long been an unorthodox voice in Silicon Valley. He has called himself a conservative libertarian and was close with controversial blogger Curtis Yarvin, who refers to himself as a neo monarchist.

You'll notice that everything you have that works was made in a monarchy or by a monarchy, or both. So for example, this iPhone. This iPhone was produced by Apple, which is a monarchy. That is, it's a corporation.

Narrator: Core to both Yarvin and Thiel's politics is a conviction that political and economic systems are bloated, inefficient, and in need of radical reform.

I still think there is a lot that one could do by deregulating, having, you know, a less severely regulated economy,

Narrator: The PayPal Mafia circle of influence steadily expanded, connecting them with other leaders in the sector. One of those connections was Shervin Pishevar, a venture capitalist who worked on Hyperloop with Musk.

I think this is a tech centered centrist movement, and we're techno optimists.

Narrator: During the Obama administration, Silicon Valley flourished, thanks in part to government support.

Every time I come to Silicon Valley, every time I come to this region, I'm excited about America's future.

People like President Obama really held up Big Tech as these bastions of innovation, of job creation, as these homegrown places that we should really celebrate.

Narrator: Pishevar participated in tech roundtables and served on the Fulbright Board in the Obama administration.

When I was working on Hyperloop, one of the first people I pitched it to was President Obama. Areas of support that President Obama gave towards innovation, it was great.

Narrator: But the ground started to shift in 2016. Though many Silicon Valley leaders backed Hillary Clinton, Thiel stood apart from his colleagues as one of few to publicly endorse Trump.

I'm not a politician, but neither is Donald Trump.

So when Peter Thiel came out in support of Donald Trump, which was not really a popular thing to do, it kind of gave legitimacy to supporting Trump.

Narrator: In the 2020 election, the communications and electronic sector, which includes many, but not all, tech companies donated a record amount of money to Democratic candidates and PACs. But at the same time, Trump garnered more support from Silicon Valley leaders than he did in 2016, including his future vice presidential candidate JD Vance. Vance previously worked with Thiel.

I tend to think that we should seize the institutions of the left and turn them against the left, right? We need like a De-Ba'athification program, but like a de-woke-ification program in the United States.

Narrator: And tension was growing between Musk and Democrats.

The more progressive wing of the party, people like Elizabeth Warren, sort of made him the face of corporate greed.

The world's richest freeloader evidently has a very thin skin.

Narrator: Another pain point for Musk was a series of EV events held by the White House.

The Biden administration has been very pro-Union, and Musk is famously anti-union, so when the White House would have these big EV summits, or Joe Biden would talk about the EV revolution, Elon was never mentioned.

Didn't mention Tesla once, and praised Jim and Ford for leading the EV revolution.

So you were pissed.

Does this sound maybe a little biased?

Narrator: Biden's administration also cracked down on Big Tech and worked on regulations around crypto and AI.

There was a very anti crypto stance and that had a very negative impact on the industry. A lot of companies got fined and hurt.

Some of them feel like they can't get mergers done or that these policies are overreaching and hurting innovation.

Narrator: Other Biden administration policies, Pishevar said, drove him to support Trump, included the handling of Iran, fiscal policy, and what he sees as different attitudes about free speech.

The Democrats are talking about filtering people's ability to express themselves on the internet, and that's the opposite, the antithesis of what people on the more centrist, conservative side believe in.

Narrator: Musk has expressed similar concerns.

Free speech is important for a healthy democracy. It is important.

Narrator: Still, in 2022, Musk expressed doubts about Trump. In July of that year, the Tesla CEO wrote on X, "I don't hate the man, but it's time for Trump to hang up his hat and sail into the sunset." But behind the scenes, Musk was already donating to Republican causes and candidates.

We found that Musk has been setting up dark money vehicles to funnel his funds. One of them was Steven Miller's organization and an ad campaign called Citizens for Sanity. These ads were considered controversial. They attacked democratic candidates for being woke, for transgender policies, for illegal immigration, and for a while who was behind these ads was a giant mystery. But we found out that he was behind that. In 2023, Musk was secretly behind Governor Ron DeSantis's run for presidential election, which makes this election cycle all the more fascinating because he's not only in support of Donald Trump this election cycle, who was not his first pick for president, but he created a Super PAC in order to help his reelection chances.

Narrator: As of October 28th, Musk had donated over 118 million to his America PAC. Donations to Trump have flowed in from multiple corners. In June, Pishevar hosted a fundraiser with David Sacks. The event raised $12 million.

I think everyone came away with the impression that he is a true patriot who loves America and loves Americans and believes in American exceptionalism.

Narrator: In October America PAC began offering $47 to those who referred registered voters to sign a petition supporting the First and Second Amendments, and Musk started speaking about a potential role in the Trump administration.

Assuming that President Trump is willing, and I think he is, I intend to play a significant role you know, in making government efficient, just-

Watching Elon become more politically engaged has been, you know, I think exhilarating for many of us because he is the greatest engineer ever, and he is one of the greatest entrepreneurs in human history.

Narrator: Democrats are still overwhelmingly winning support from the communications and electronic sector. Tech leaders like Mark Cuban are also hitting the road on Harris's campaign, speaking against Trump.

And now his trade policies, particularly with tariffs, are basically just gibberish.

Narrator: Harris has also brought back some of the support that the party lost under Biden. Venture capitalist Ben Horowitz, for example, posted on X that he would be donating to both campaigns after previously saying he would donate to Trump. But still, the shift among these prominent leaders could change the dynamics of the election. America PAC has become involved in Trump's campaigning,

They're door knocking, they are registering voters, they're getting people absentee ballots. That's a very meaningful part of the ground game for the Trump campaign, and especially in an election that is so close and in swing states that are so important.

Narrator: Thiel, Vance, Trump, and Sacks did not respond to request for comment on this video.