by Robert Schmad
Big names in the cryptocurrency and venture capital world, some of them former Democratic donors, are throwing their support behind former President Donald Trump.
Venture capitalists David Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya held a high-dollar fundraiser for the former president on Thursday evening in San Francisco. raising $12 million to the Trump 47 Joint Fundraising Committee for a sold-out, ticketed fundraiser Cost up to $500,000 per couple. Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal, prolific tech investor Shervin Pishevar, and Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, known for their feud with Mark Zuckerberg over founding Facebook, all attended the event, a source familiar with the fundraiser told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“In 2016, the number of people I knew in Silicon Valley who supported Trump was a sample of one person, and that was Peter [Thiel]”Jacob Helberg, senior advisor to Palantir, told Reuters. “Today I count them in dozens, if not more. Over the last six months, we have started to see the dam break,” he continued.
Helberg recently made $1 million donation for Trump’s re-election bid in 2024, after previously supporting Democratic candidates.
“The social costs of supporting Trump are not as great as they were before,” Helberg said of the Silicon Valley society, many of whose members see that “Trump was right on many of the issues that determined America’s victory.”
Palihapitya, previously The Facebook executive, who now works as a venture capitalist, was also a major Democratic supporter, pumping $1.3 million into the party between 2011 and 2021 before raising funds for Trump. According to to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Both former President Barack Obama’s and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaigns benefited from Pishevar’s donations as the investor borrowed cash and allowed his home to become a fundraising site to support elect Democrats, According to to Deadline. Some Democrats do, however cutting ties with Pishevar following sexual harassment allegations despite being a major party donor, as documented according to data from the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Pishevar also donated to 2020 Republican Party Senate candidates in Georgia.
“I just donated $300,000 to Trump. dollars” – Shaun Maguire, partner at Sequoia Capital and former donor to Hillary Clinton he wrote in May on X.
“I know I’ll lose friends over this. Some people won’t want to do business with me. The media will probably demonize me because they have so many others ahead of me. Despite this, I still believe it is the right decision,” he continued.
Maguire cited President Joe Biden’s handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan, his inadequate support for Israel and the media’s double standard in its coverage of Trump and Biden as he explained his decision to support Trump. Helberg too quoted Biden’s approach to Israel in explaining his support for Trump.
Free market capitalism, baby 🇺🇸
— Shaun Maguire (@shaunmmaguire) June 7, 2024
Grewal’s partisan affiliations are less clearly defined in the FEC filings showing cryptocurrency executive recently donated to Republican and Democrat campaigns. According to Reuters, other Coinbase executives also participated in the fundraiser.
Support from Coinbase executives and the Winklevoss twins, who run cryptocurrency exchange platform Gemini, followed Biden’s decision veto a congressional attempt to limit how the Securities and Exchange Commission could regulate digital currencies.
“It could have just been the final domino,” San Francisco chief technology officer Trevor Traina told Reuters, referring to the veto. Both Sacks and Palihapitiya hold significant amounts of cryptocurrency.
The crypto industry has generally ramped up its efforts to influence policy, with crypto industry-linked super PACs raising $102 million so far this cycle, According to to Reuters. Fairshake, a immense cryptocurrency-backed super PAC, spent more than $10 million opposing California Democratic Rep. Katie Porter in the state Senate primary, campaign finances show to show.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to DCNF’s request for comment.
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Robert Schmad is a reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “David Sacks” by Robert Scoble. CC BY 2.0. Photo “Chamath Palihapitiya” by Chamath Palihapitiya. “Trump Rally” cover photo by Daniel Scavino Jr..
