Wall Street and Silicon Valley Elites Are Warming Up to Trump

The 2024 presidential election, pitting Joe Biden against Donald Trump, may feel like a tiresome rematch of should-be retirees facing off once again with the future of the free world at stake. But something feels different and hard to explain this time. Trump’s most visible supporters are no longer angry blue-collar workers from red states wearing MAGA hats and waving “drain the swamp” signs at rallies. They’re some of the most successful businessmen in the country, expressing their grievances online, fretting about immigration and the war in Ukraine and slinging around doubts about Biden’s performance and age.

Elon Musk, Citadel founder Ken Griffin and Oracle Corp. co-founder and Chairman Larry Ellison, among others, are either overtly or quietly embracing the GOP nominee for president and the prospect of returning to the political turbulence of the Trump era. In other words, some of the same people who’ve seen their wealth grow propitiously in the past few years and benefited from the stability of the status quo are now among the loudest voices trying to upend it. “A number of them come from the tech world, and part of their success is based on disruption,” says Charles Myers, chairman of Signum Global Advisors and a Democratic political adviser. “They think our country and politics needs radical disruption, and the chaos around that is intoxicating to them.”