Why Elon Musk and other Silicon Valley billionaires are backing Trump

Between marketing campaign donations and super-PAC creations, billionaires have all the time performed their hand in presidential elections. Nonetheless, on this election cycle between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, their affect is felt greater than ever. Mark Cuban has been a staunch surrogate for the Harris marketing campaign. Elon Musk has been rallying for Trump. The distinction between the 2 campaigns is that the GOP billionaire backers with enterprise backgrounds have been pushing a extra political strategy to their endorsements. Why?

On the newest episode of Capitol Gains, Yahoo Finance’s Rachelle Akuffo, Washington Correspondent Ben Werschkul, and Senior Columnist Rick Newman talk about the billionaires investing their cash into the Trump marketing campaign and their motivations for doing so.

Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Marc Andreessen are key gamers Newman dubs the “Silicon Valley Trump Mafia.” “I feel these guys principally are attempting to be American oligarchs,” he says. They have fame, they have more cash than they know what to do with, and they need energy. I feel they sense that Trump is manipulable and in the event that they get behind him, he’ll do their bidding within the White Home.”

Musk lately donated a whopping $75 million to a pro-Trump group to assist additional efforts, particularly in Pennsylvania. “It is an open query of whether or not this group can convey out the vote, in the best way that other teams can’t,” Werschkul says. “So if Trump finally ends up over-performing in Pennsylvania, then Musk will get a whole lot of credit score. If it’s underperforming, there is perhaps a whole lot of questions raised.”

To search out out extra, hearken to the complete episode of Capitol Features here.

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This publish was written by Lauren Pokedoff.