The battle for Silicon Valley’s political soul – and donations – is back in full swing after President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race on Sunday. It didn’t take long for the world richest Republican presidential candidate Elon Musk is anticipated to reiterate his arguments for Republican candidate Donald Trump – and interact in a social media dispute with outstanding enterprise capitalist and Democratic donor Vinod Khosla.
Shortly after Biden officially dropped out of the race, Khosla said in a post on X, Musk’s platform, that he would favor an open convention to decide on the Democratic candidate.
“Come on, Vinod,” the Tesla and SpaceX co-founder replied, reiterating his support for former President Trump and his newly nominated vice presidential candidate JD Vance.
Come on, Vinod. Trump/Vance LFG!!
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 21, 2024
Khosla, an investor in OpenAI price about $8 billion, was willing to become involved.
“I find it difficult to support someone who has no values, lies, cheats, rapes, humiliates women and hates immigrants like me,” wrote Khosla, who grew up in India before graduating from Carnegie Mellon University and Stanford University, said: “He may cut taxes or weaken regulation, but that is no reason to compromise his personal values.”
In the following exchange, Khosla and Musk said agreed concerning the mistrust of media organizations and the necessity to promote individual freedoms. collidesHowever, he can also be concerned about what a Trump presidency would mean for the fight against climate change and America’s leadership role in NATO.
Finally, Khosla asked Musk if he was willing to forgive Trump for the previous president’s role within the Capitol rebel on January 6, 2021. Musk didn’t respond.
And @elonmusk are you willing to forgive him for attempting to undermine democracy and incite an rebel on January sixth simply to win? He did all the pieces, illegal or not, to attempt to win while his own deeply partisan cabinet tried to manage him and make him quit https://t.co/mPH4X5Ug7E
— Vinod Khosla (@vkhosla) July 21, 2024
The social media spat has exposed a conflict in traditionally liberal Silicon Valley, where a few of the biggest (and richest) names in tech, including Musk, Peter Thiel and enterprise capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, have publicly endorsed Trump.
By electing Vance – the brand new Senator from Ohio and writer of the bestselling memoirs Hillbilly Elegy– as his vice presidential running mate, Trump strengthened his campaign’s ties to the VC world, where Vance made a profession after graduating from Yale Law School. Thiel, Vance’s biggest VC backer, helped introduce Vance to Trump at Mar-A-Lago in 2021, with Vance receiving Trump’s blessing to run for Senate despite his past criticism of the previous president.
But Vance, the primary millennial on a significant party ticket, is much from an ally of Big Tech and people who see increased regulation as an existential threat to investment and innovation. Vance has praised Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan for leading the agency’s antitrust enforcement. He has also worked across party lines with progressive colleagues similar to Elizabeth Warren to push through bills similar to the “Law to finish subsidies for huge corporate mergers.”
To run against Trump and Vance, Khosla initially named Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro as candidates for the Democratic nomination. He later added Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear and Harris, who endorsed Biden shortly after he dropped out of office, to the list. However, all three governors quickly threw their support behind Harris, who is anticipated to be the nominee after her campaign. said On Sunday, nearly $50 million was raised.
LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman was among the many first Silicon Valley executives to publicly support Harris, a Bay Area native and past ally of major California technology firms.
