OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
A growing number of big-dollar GOP donors are unifying behind former President Donald Trump, helping him close what was a yawning fundraising gap with his likely 2024 rival, President Joe Biden.
The increase in billionaire donors is particularly noticeable in Silicon Valley, the country’s tech hub, which has leaned decidedly Democratic in recent election cycles.
On Thursday, Trump raked in $12 million in a single night in what is essentially former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s backyard in San Francisco. The extremely liberal city has been a stronghold of Democratic politics for decades. The fundraising amount reportedly did not come from the city’s average citizens but rather from large-dollar donors with ties to Silicon Valley, Just the News reported.
Located in the Bay Area, the Valley hosts numerous tech and venture capital firms. In recent weeks, many of its leading figures have, for various reasons, expressed their support for the former president.
“In 2016, the number of people from Silicon Valley I knew who supported Trump was a sample of one, which was Peter [Thiel],” former Palantir adviser Jacob Helburg told Reuters. “Today I count them in the dozens, if not more than that. Over the course of the past six months, we’ve started to see the dam break.”
The $12 million fundraiser took place on Thursday evening at the home of venture capitalist David Sacks. The event was co-hosted by David Sacks and fellow venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya.
A Trump campaign official told Just the News that “[t]he event hosted by David Sacks and Chamath Paliphapitiya had over 100 attendees. Some of the most important investors and innovators from the tech industry sector were in attendance and they raised $12 million dollars.”
Sacks has been a vocal critic of the Biden administration’s approach to foreign policy, particularly regarding the Ukraine War. His analysis and advocacy for negotiations with Moscow have generated significant online interest.
Sacks outlined his reasons for supporting Trump in a lengthy X post last week, citing the economy, foreign affairs, border security, and “lawfare” targeting the former president.
“With Biden, our choices are limited to fighting the proxy war to the last Ukrainian, or fighting Russia ourselves,” Sacks wrote. “President Trump has said he wants the dying in Ukraine to stop, and that he will seek to end the war through a negotiated settlement. Ukraine will no longer be able to get the deal we talked them out of in April 2022, but we can still save Ukraine as an independent nation and avert world war.”
Sacks also pointed to a number of economic metrics and insisted “[w]e can’t afford another four years of Bidenomics.” He also accused Biden of enabling a “de facto open border policy” and insisted that the administration had pursued “elective prosecutions against his political opponents.”
Sequoia Capital partner Shaun Maguire, meanwhile, made headlines last week following Trump’s conviction in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s hush money case. “I just donated $300k to President Trump. The timing isn’t a coincidence,” Maguire posted on X shortly after the verdict.
He also wrote a lengthy post explaining his reasons for backing Trump and devoted a segment of it to what he deemed “lawfare,” asserting that “[t]his has been another radicalizing experience. I understand that normally when there’s smoke there’s fire, but in this case I think when there’s smoke there’s lawfare.”
“Fairness is one of my guiding principles in life and simply, these cases haven’t been fair for Trump,” Maguire insisted. He added: “I believe Trump was one of the best foreign policy Presidents in decades, and during the most complex period in almost a century, as the East rises, which leads to a changing set of rules.”
