Trump Campaign Raises $12M in California

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Facts

  • Former US Pres. Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee for this year's election, reportedly raised $12M at a San Francisco event hosted by two tech venture capitalists on Thursday.1
  • Venture capitalists David Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya hosted the reception and dinner at Sacks's Pacific Heights mansion, where top tickets cost $500K per couple. Several crypto investors and executives from crypto exchanges were among the sold-out crowd.1
  • Trump's California trip is expected to include private events in Beverly Hills and Newport Beach over the weekend. This comes after the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee (RNC) earlier this week said they'd raised $141M.2
  • The trip to Democrat-dominated California also comes one week after Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts for falsifying business records in a New York trial. His campaign said it and the RNC raised almost $53M in the 24 hours after the verdict.3
  • Since the verdict, some of California's wealthiest citizens — including Sequoia Capital partners Shaun Maguire and Doug Leone — have announced their support for Trump, with Maguire making a $300K contribution to the former president.4
  • Tech executives give varying reasons for their support for Trump, including his status as a 'disrupter,' his take on antitrust and privacy laws, and Pres. Joe Biden's rhetoric on taxing the rich.5

Sources: 1Reuters.com, 2Politico (a), 3FOX News, 4Politico (b) and 5BBC News.

Narratives

  • Pro-Trump narrative, as provided by Breitbart. It's impossible for tech entrepreneurs and executives to support Biden, and others should consider the ramifications if Trump doesn't defeat the incumbent president. Biden's administration wants to overtax those who've achieved the most in the US, and his agencies want to impose oppressive regulations on industry. There's no one else worth backing but Trump.
  • Anti-Trump narrative, as provided by MSNBC. It's no surprise that today's tech moguls — most of whom are white, male, and rich — would get behind the candidate who not only looks and thinks most like them, but will do what he can to fight against the diversity efforts they oppose and Democrats embrace. What's good for Silicon Valley, however, isn't always good for the US as a whole.

Predictions