Silicon Valley has officially gone MAGA. For evidence, you need look no further than the fact that the co-founders of one of the tech industry’s most influential venture capital firms, Andreessen Horowitz, have quietly announced they will be sending large gobs of cash to the Trump team.
Marc Andreessen, and his long-time business partner, Ben Horowitz, are both planning on contributing an unknown amount of money to the Trump campaign, sources aware of the situation told The Information (Axios later confirmed). It is apparently the first time either of them will have contributed to a presidential candidate’s campaign. The duo are just two of a growing number of Silicon Valley tech executives who have recently voiced support for Trump, a surprising twist for those who may have viewed the tech industry as a predominantly liberal town.
However, it would appear that the primary motivating factor here is economics, not ideology. A source told Axios that Andreessen and Horowitz are looking for the leader that they think will be most amenable to their business interests and that the donations are thus “motivated by areas like crypto and AI regulation, without regard to other issues like abortion or the Supreme Court.”
It may initially be difficult to grasp why anyone would think Trump is an ideal candidate in this regard. After all, the billionaire once said he was “not a fan” of cryptocurrencies and has, for the most part, seemed to have little interest in artificial intelligence except to occasionally claim that his campaign gaffes were the result of it. In recent months, however, Trump’s campaign has shifted notably on tech issues, further aligning itself with Silicon Valley’s core interests.
Indeed, Trump recently suggested that he would throw out the relatively tame AI executive order that Biden issued last year, and has plans to unleash the floodgates when it comes to AI development, effectively freeing tech bigwigs like Andreessen to pursue their moronic goal of “techno-optimism.” Trump, whose campaign recently reaped a small haul in Dogecoin donations, has also come around on crypto and is scheduled to give a speech at a Bitcoin conference in Nashville later this month. Could the influx of cash from the tech industry’s coffers and this sudden ideological pivot have anything to do with one another? I will leave that up to you to decide, dear reader.
Marc Andreessen’s support for Trump, meanwhile, seems pretty straightforward. Indeed, the two men fit together well. In addition to the daft, greed-addled manifesto about capitalism and technology that he published last year, Andreessen’s recent focus has been on propping up nationalistic, pro-America defense startups. All of that seems quite at home with the MAGA worldview which, in general, is pro-defense, pro-deregulation, and, of course, pro-rich people (just check out those Trump tax breaks). Andreessen and his crowd want someone who is going to be completely hands-off when it comes to their industry’s more ludicrous ambitions and, currently, Trump seems to fit the bill.
Even less surprising is the fact that Elon Musk, Silicon Valley’s most prominent edgelord billionaire, now appears to be committing an absurd amount of money to a PAC designed to get Trump elected. On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Musk would begin doling out “$45 million a month” to America PAC, a political action committee that, as the New York Times has reported, was founded by some of Musk’s “closest friends.” The newspaper cited “people familiar with the matter,” as evidence.
On Tuesday, Musk seemed to disavow the report, tweeting out a meme in response to the story that said: “FAKE GNUS.” However, when a commenter on the post said that Musk had gone from “being an Obama voter to pledging $180 million to elect DJT” Musk responded: “Yeah.” The apparent red-pilling of Elon has been a long, loud process, replete with many, many red flags. One of the most prominent of said flags was Musk’s 2022 decision to buy Twitter, rename it X, and effectively convert it into a scaled version of 4chan. Ever since then, Musk has used the platform to promulgate a flood of rightwing conspiracy theories, anti-woke diatribes, and dopey, pro-capitalist musings—an ideological strain that, for the most part, is highly compatible with the Trump base. Not only has Musk long been chummy with Trump, but he also clearly despises Biden and, on Saturday, following the attempt on Trump’s life, Musk formally endorsed Trump for President.
The same PAC that was founded by Musk’s friends (and which is reportedly getting funding from Musk) is also backed by a number of prominent tech industry tycoons, including the co-founder of creepy defense contractor Palantir Joe Lonsdale and the two Facebook-wannabe dolts, the Winklevoss twins, the Journal writes. In short: prominent members of Silicon Valley’s power elite have officially joined the ranks of the MAGA faithful. In addition to the economic interests at stake, various social panics within the rarefied confines of the Bay Area may also be at fault. Given the outrage in San Francisco over homeless people, “wokeness” and Biden’s “unfriendly” approach to business interests, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is just the beginning.
