Ultra-wealthy tech bro-turned-philanthropist Bill Gates quietly donated a reported $50 million to Future Forward, the largest Democratic-leaning super PAC, in support of Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign. According to The New York Times, the donation, which does not need to be reported publicly by the organization, was supposed to remain "under wraps."
“I support candidates who demonstrate a clear commitment to improving health care, reducing poverty and fighting climate change in the U.S. and around the world,” Gates told the Times, who reported on the donation. “I have a long history of working with leaders across the political spectrum, but this election is different, with unprecedented significance for Americans and the most vulnerable people around the world.”
Whether or not this information was leaked with Gates’ knowledge is unknown. Gates has historically remained politically neutral in public. He has leaned on the work his Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation coordinates with both Republican and Democratic administrations.
According to anonymous sources at the foundation who spoke with the Times, there are “significant” concerns that a second Trump administration could lead to considerable budget cuts to family planning and global health programs, two focuses of the foundation’s philanthropic work.
Meanwhile, the world’s richest tech bro, Elon Musk, has gone all in, spending no less than $70 million (and likely a lot more) to promote Donald Trump on X and offering possible bribes to prospective voters. Surely Musk is fighting for something lofty like “improving health care, reducing poverty and fighting climate change in the U.S. and around the world,” right?
Every billionaire is a policy failure because of the inordinate amount of power they can wield in the public sphere. This even includes Gates’ philanthropic work in public education, considered by many to have had a regressive effect because their funding can shape policy.
However, when the world's richest man buys the largest social media company—in a deal considered to be unbelievably bad business—and turns it into a propaganda machine to espouse antisemitic conspiracy theories and back a fascist, that’s a far more immediate threat to our democratic freedoms.
Gates’ ability to throw $50 million in support of the Harris-Walz campaign, as well as Musk’s millions behind Trump, is the result of systemic inequities and the lack of strong campaign finance laws. But between these two men only one is offering up a probably illegal lottery scheme to get MAGA-leaning swing state voters to vote for a man who has said he wishes he had a Nazi army.
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English (US) ·