The Billionaire Vote

Here’s a list of billionaires and where they stand on Donald Trump.

Oprah Winfrey Con
T. Boone Pickens Pro
Joe Ricketts Pro
Steven Spielberg Con
Sheldon Adelson Pro
Tom Barrack Pro
Michael Bloomberg Con
Meg Whitman Con
Carl Icahn Pro
Warren Buffett Con
Mark Cuban Con
Jeff Bezos Con
Mark Zuckerberg Con
Bill Gates Con
Peter Thiel Pro
Charles Koch Con
David Koch Con
Robert Mercer Pro
Elon Musk Con
Paul Singer Con
George Soros Con

If there’s some sort of class-consciousness, partisan, or even new economy vs. old economy pattern to Trump support in that group, I’m not seeing it.

I welcome additional contributions to this list. Please leave your suggestions, preferably with citations, in comments.

15 comments… add one
  • steve Link

    Can go down here list one at a time, but do you really think that Whitman and the Koch brothers will oppose Trump’s tax cuts? He wasn’t their choice in the primaries, but they will fall in line now that he is president. Every time I hear Cuban on CNBC he is supporting Trump. So, Trump is going to emphasize changes that help the FIRE sector. Some of the people on this list won’t like that. However, if he chooses to support policies, like tax expenditures that support where they make money you can bet they will fall in line. (Bezos is a supposed libertarian, but he owns the WaPo. Has a monopoly with Amazon. You think that in principle he would oppose govt policies that favor the wealthy?)

    Steve

  • michael reynolds Link

    Public vs. Private individuals. Those who interact regularly with a wide circle of people, or whose businesses depend on appeals to the public – Winfrey, Spielberg, Bloomberg, Bezos, Zuckerberg, Gates are anti-Trump. Backroom operators like Pickens, Icahn, Mercer are pro-Trump. It’s not one-to-one, but when you control for bullshit – the Koch’s supposedly being anti-Trump – you get a pretty clear picture of those who are outward-facing being anti-Trump.

    Or to put it a different way, those who are part of the cultural zeitgeist, the thinkers, the big ideas people, the creatives, are anti-Trump. The guys who shuffle money from one pocket to the other and create nothing of interest are pro-Trump.

  • Ben Wolf Link

    Or to put it a different way, those who are part of the cultural zeitgeist, the thinkers, the big ideas people, the creatives, are anti-Trump.

    That is really some top-quality bullshit, well done.

  • Guarneri Link

    Hard to,imagine the Pritzkers aren’t still in the club. Definitely anti.

  • CStanley Link

    I get the impression that the pro Trump billionaires are outsiders from the normal political-social elite social circle.

    Mercer appears to be the most pro Trump on that list. Some of the others decided to go along, but Mercer sounds like an extreme libertarian who was actively promoting the idea of toppling the normal political establishment. He first supported Cruz but then pivoted to Trump as the change agent he was seeking.

  • CStanley Link

    http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/27/the-reclusive-hedge-fund-tycoon-behind-the-trump-presidency

    Sorry, tried to embed this link but I must have messed up the code.

  • Janis Gore Link

    Can someone provide the code for embedding? I’ve forgotten.

  • The New Yorker article is about Robert Mercer, one of the billionaires on my list above. It also mentions Charles and David Koch who have been vocal in their opposition to Trump, see this article from Time.com but which Michael pooh-poohs.

  • sam Link

    Stan Druckenmiller (Duquense Capital Management) – Con

    Tom Steyer (Ex Farallon Capital) – Con

    Seth Klarman (Baupost Group) – Con

    Source: The Street: These 11 Billionaires Don’t Want Donald Trump to Be President

    The Waltons supported Hillary in the election, and I don’t suppose they much like the tariff border adjustment tax proposal.

  • More evidence against the old economy vs. new economy hypothesis. I think the best answer is “it’s complicated”.

  • Janis Gore Link

    CS — It’s URL name

  • Janis Gore Link

    Worked too well, dinnit?

    Ignore parentheses, (URL name)

  • Janis Gore Link

    Oh, never mind.

  • CStanley Link

    Well on economic policy, most of them clearly benefit from open borders and globalism. Many also are involved in entertainment and popular culture which tilts very much toward progressive politics. I still say the majority were anti-Trump because of self interest in preserving the status quo, but a few exceptions among those who either had different self interest (Adelson is anti-union and would have backed anyone over a Democrat I think) or had less at stake and decided cast their bets on the populist wave. Mercer is the one who placed some very early and large bets on Trump.

  • CStanley Link

    Heh Janis…I think I know it but just erred in the execution.

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