Once upon a time, some überwealthy individuals who’d previously supported Donald Trump declared that they were done with the 45th president of the United States. After January 6, 2021, billionaire GOP donor Nelson Peltzcalled the insurrection a “stain on America” and publicly apologized for voting for Trump in 2020. Real estate and aerospace mogul Robert Bigelowsaid Trump “lost me as a supporter” and showed, during the attack on the Capitol, that “he was no commander.” Billionaire donor Howard Hammtold Trump point-blank not to run for office again, saying the Republican Party needed a chaos-free candidate, and gave money to his competitors instead.
So it may or may not surprise you that those exact people, and others whose net worths include roughly nine zeros, are now singing an extremely different tune. Which, and we don’t want to shock anyone, might have something to do with Joe Biden pledging to raise their taxes. As The Washington Postreports, Peltz hosted Trump for breakfast this month at his Palm Beach mansion, later telling the Financial Times he will “probably” vote for him in November. Bigelow told Reuters in January he donated $1 million to help cover Trump’s legal fees and promised to give $20 million more to a Trump-aligned super PAC. According to the Post, Hamm is headlining a fundraiser next month—hosted by fellow billionaire John Paulson—for which the maximum contribution is $814,600.
This isn’t a play Biden has really every done his entire time as a politician. Biden is the definition of a politician who identifies the status quo and builds their platform from it.
Whatever, most of the time it doesn’t matter, but it is truly incredible in this moment how much more politicians like Biden could be successful if they just promised to tax billionaires and then actually did it. Yes you would receive zero campaign funding from the rich for the rest of your life but you would also become extremely popular in the eyes of the public?
Small donation campaign financing works, this isn’t black magic.
His administration really needs better PR in general.
They've accomplished quite a bit but they don't publicize it enough. They also need to quit making those silly ads like the one that was up on socials during the Super Bowl. Show us the clips of the man at work. It would work absolute wonders.
But as billionaires they might get a good few decades of living like royalty under a fascist regime before they inevitably fall out of favor (and a window).
Inb4, I agree Trump is bad, but it'd be nice for people to be inspired to vote for someone they believe in rather than having to just vote against someone they hate.
It would be nice, but without a system of non-plurality voting, refusing to participate in strategic voting is akin to refusing to participate in tipping culture.
You're not taking some noble stand against the system, you're making the most vulnerable to it pay for how annoyed you are about it.
Because to gather such vast sums of money you will have had to go over a few bodies. Or more.
If they cared about the wellbeing of others they would've never become billionaires.
Deep down, all they have is fear of losing it all.
If I somehow lost every material possession, I could still get a decent engineering job somewhere and rebuild my life. These billionaires are truly worthless, not qualified or able to run a lemonade stand. They know if they lost it all, they would be begging for dollars on the side of the road. Why they fight so hard to rig the system.