(US Choice 2024)Musk is Trump, Bill Gates is Harris…an all-time ‘War of Money’

“It will be the most expensive election in U.S. history.”
Looking at the political sponsorship of billionaires

“Elon Musk (Tesla CEO) is Donald Trump, and Bill Gates (Microsoft founder) is Kamala Harris.”

The U.S. presidential election is literally known as a ‘war of money’ in which trillions of election lobbying funds are exchanged. This is because there is no upper limit on donations through Super PAC (Special Political Action Committee), so it is possible to donate astronomical amounts. In particular, this year’s November 5 presidential election is expected to be ‘the most expensive election in U.S. history’ as the Democratic candidate, Vice President Harris, and the Republican candidate, former President Trump, are locked in a very close race until the last minute. Who are the big players supporting them?

The US presidential election became a ‘battle of billionaires’

According to major foreign media citing data from the U.S. Federal Election Commission (FEC) on the 28th (local time), the campaign funds secured by the Harris camp and Super PAC (including the Biden-Harris camp) as of the middle of this month were approximately 2.15 billion. It is estimated to be worth 10,000 dollars (about 2.98 trillion won). Of this, approximately 6%, or $390 million, was contributed by billionaires. During the same period, the Trump campaign and Super PAC raised about $1.68 billion (about 2.33 trillion won). In the case of former President Trump, there was much greater dependence on super PACs in which major business players participated. In this presidential election, 40% of the political funds he can use were secured from billionaires.

A major foreign media outlet evaluated this year’s US presidential election as a ‘battle of billionaires’, saying, “At least 144 people on Forbes’ list of 800 American billionaires are using their wealth to influence this election.”

The amount of donations from billionaires confirmed to have been provided to the two candidates’ camps during this election period is estimated to be at least $695 million (approximately 960 billion won), or 18% of the total amount. Considering that the identity of the sponsor is not clearly confirmed in the amount donated to non-profit organizations, it is estimated that the actual donations from billionaires are much higher than this. According to the New York Times (NYT), Bill Gates recently privately revealed that he donated $50 million (approximately 69.3 billion won) to a non-profit organization supporting Vice President Harris, but due to the organization’s policy of not officially confirming the identity of donors, various This cannot be confirmed in financial details.

Billionaire supports Harris

Representative billionaires who have been officially confirmed to have made donations to Vice President Harris so far include Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskowitz, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. In Silicon Valley, which is divided in half, founder Hoffman, who stands on Vice President Harris’s side, is considered one of the traditional Democratic Party’s high-income earners. He donated $10 million to the super PAC Future Forward and $6 million to the Republican Accountability Pack, which promotes criticism of former Trump supporters.

Moskowitz, who has a net worth of $15 billion, is also confirmed to have donated $38 million to a super PAC supporting Harris and more than $1 million to a Harris support group. Former Mayor Bloomberg, who has criticized former President Trump in the past, also donated money to the Democratic Party when President Biden was a candidate. Although former Mayor Bloomberg’s additional donations are not confirmed in the recently disclosed details, the NYT reported that in addition to founder Bill Gates, former Mayor Bloomberg also discussed donating millions of dollars to Vice President Harris. Local media also reported that Bloomberg, whose net worth is over 100 billion won, usually tends to make large-scale donations at the end of a presidential election.

In addition, Alex Soros, son of Wall Street billionaire George Soros and chairman of the Open Society Foundation, Netflix founder Reed Hastings, and Ripple co-founder Chris Larson are also mentioned as representative supporters of Vice President Harris. Forbes reported, “Among the billionaires supporting Vice President Harris, there are many emerging, IT, and female wealthy people.” However, in the case of Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and owner of the Washington Post (WP), it is understood that he has actually turned around by recently ordering WP to withdraw its support for Vice President Harris.

Musk, Mellon and others support Trump

On the other hand, the most famous billionaire who supports former President Trump is Tesla CEO Elon Musk. CEO Musk, who declared his official support immediately after the assassination of former President Trump during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, appeared at former President Trump’s campaign rally in New York the previous day and urged support. The world’s richest person according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, he founded ‘America Pac’, a super PAC supporting former President Trump, and held a large-scale lottery where one person was selected every day from among registered voters in major swing states until the presidential election and was awarded $1 million. They even held an event and attracted attention. As of mid-October, the amount donated through America Pack alone is estimated to be more than $118 million.

Another big supporter is Timothy Mellon. Mellon, a wealthy man from a banking family, donated $150 million to MAGA, a super PAC supporting former President Trump. Major foreign news outlets reported that this amounts to about 45% of total donations. Miriam Adelson, wife of Las Vegas casino tycoon Sheldon Adelson, is also an avid Trump supporter who donated more than $100 million to the Trump support group. Miriam, who inherited the inheritance after her husband’s death, has a net worth of over $34 billion. Previously, former President Trump awarded the Presidential Medal of Merit to Miriam in 2018. In addition, Liz and Dick Uline, founders of the transportation company Uline, also donated $10 million to MAGA, which supports former President Trump.

Local analysis suggests that the presence of billionaires is growing due to the structural political environment in the United States, which increasingly requires reliance on large-scale donors. The explanation is that due to the unique tradition of the federal system, huge costs are invested to maintain the electoral system, so large donors are desperately needed. Moreover, in the United States, while there is a cap on donations per person to official candidates’ camps, there is no cap for super PACs or political groups. According to Open Secrets, 20 years ago, at the time of the 2004 U.S. election, there were only 23 political donors with more than $1 million.

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