Reid Hoffman, the billionaire co-founder of LinkedIn and a mega-donor to the Democratic Party, is said to be so worried about President-elect Donald Trump’s victory that he has considered leaving the country.
Hoffman, who was vocal in his support of Vice President Kamala Harris’ failed campaign, has told friends he is considering moving out of state because of fears Trump would use his power in the White House to sought revenge against his political enemies, according to the New York Times.
After the first failed assassination attempt on Trump in July, Hoffman found himself in hot water after earlier comments surfaced in which he said he wanted the president-elect to be a “real martyr.”
In April of last year, the Times reported that Hoffman, who donated $10 million to a super PAC supporting Harris, also helped fund a defamation lawsuit filed by former New York magazine writer E. Jean Carroll against Trump.
Trump’s lawyers argued in court at the time that Hoffman’s role in funding the lawsuit raised “significant questions” about Carroll’s credibility.
A jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in 1996 and for defamation. She was awarded $5 million. Earlier this year, another jury awarded Carroll an additional $83.3 million in defamation damages after Trump said she lied about the rape allegations.
The Post has sought comment from Hoffman and the Trump transition team.
Hoffman is not the only deep-pocketed Democratic donor who has been willing to entertain the idea of moving abroad.
According to the Times, several major donors and their advisers have opened up the possibility of leaving the country in private conversations.
The jittery Democratic donor class has been trying to regroup since Trump’s Nov. 5 victory over Harris.
A four-day gathering of the Alliance for Democracy, a left-leaning donor network, in Washington, DC, had the feel of a “funeral,” according to two attendees who spoke to the Times.
“People are kind of shocked — and trying to figure out what happened,” tech mogul Steve Silberstein told the publication.
“People are trying to adjust to reality and chart a way forward.”
Another Democratic-backed tech mogul said to be anxious about the incoming Trump administration is OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who is considered an enemy of Elon Musk, the Tesla boss who has the ear of the president. selected.
Altman, who is reportedly despised by Musk after the former won a power struggle at OpenAI, has tried to infiltrate Trump’s inner circle by going through middlemen, but so far has been unsuccessful due to a sense of common that Musk would oppose, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The paper reported that Altman has reached out to Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and his brother, venture capital mogul Josh Kushner, in hopes of ingratiating himself with the president-elect’s orbit — but without much success so far.
Recently, Altman managed to score a meeting with Howard Lutnick, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald and Trump’s transition co-chair, who is also in line to become the next commerce secretary.
According to the Journal, Altman told Lutnick, a Musk ally, about OpenAI’s plans to boost investment in the US by building large data centers and hiring workers.
Musk’s lawyers on Friday sought an injunction against OpenAI and Microsoft in an attempt to stop the creator of ChatGPT from turning into a profitable company. Microsoft is a major supporter of OpenAI.
The Post has sought comment from Josh Kushner, Jared Kushner and Lutnick.
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