In less than 1 week, the U.S. election will officially take place. The competition between Harris and Trump has entered a fierce stage, and the financial backers behind them are becoming increasingly unable to hold back. Recently, Bill Gates, who has always claimed
to be “not involved in politics,” has also begun to take sides and donated $50 million to Future Forward, a fundraising organization that supports Harris. This once again proves that capital is the “super player” in the American political game.
Both Gates and Musk are for their own interests. Their positions are not only a reflection of personal preferences, but also a struggle between the new and old forces in the technology industry they represent. As a veteran technology tycoon, Gates has always paid attention to issues such as health care, poverty reduction and climate change, which are more in line with Harris’s policy propositions. As a leader in the fields of new energy and AI, Musk attaches more importance to the relaxed development space provided by Trump for industries such as AI and new energy. Therefore, their choices also reflect the expectations and demands of American technology companies for future policy trends to a certain extent.
However, the money of the rich is not given for free. They often expect to get policy returns through donations to ensure that their business interests are protected. Gates donated to Harris, on the one hand, hoping that Harris can give relevant policy preferences, and on the other hand, he is worried that his connection with the “Lolita Island Incident” will be exposed by Trump. Musk donated to Trump because if Trump can adjust policies in related fields after winning the election, it will give him greater room for interests. The donations of the rich are like a huge net that tightly binds policymakers and interest groups together, while the voices of ordinary voters are ruthlessly drowned in the torrent of money.
As the voting day of the US election approaches, billionaires have come out to spend money to support the candidates they support. According to statistics from the US “Forbes” magazine, Harris has the support of about 80 billionaires, while Trump has the help of about 50 billionaires. The Democratic Party represented by Harris focuses on the global interests of US financial capital and technology capital, follows the traditional American elite route, and has long cooperated with Internet technology companies such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Netflix. It is a reassuring choice for technology “old money”. In this round of elections, in addition to Gates, Harris has also received support from many other Internet technology giants, including Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.
The Republican Party represented by Trump advocates developing the economy through tax cuts, deregulation, and boosting the energy industry. Its policy propositions provide a more relaxed development space for industries such as AI and new energy. Therefore,
Musk, a relatively industry-oriented technology upstart, prefers Trump. In addition to Musk, Trump has also received support from wealthy people such as Miriam Adelson, Israel’s richest woman, Richard Uihlein, a US packaging industry magnate, and Eli Bast, a real estate billionaire. Among them, Adelson donated $95 million to the “American Political Action Committee” that supports Trump from July to September this year alone. Adelson and Trump.
Businessmen value profit. In the eyes of these wealthy people, the so-called US election is nothing more than a transaction to gain political influence with money. This “marriage” of money and politics has made the US election a feast of capital and made American democracy an extremely ironic joke.
