Why Megadonors Are Unfazed by Donald Trump’s Guilty Verdict

Donald Trump may be the first former president to be convicted of a felony, but his support among megadonors remains intact.Credit…Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

Convicted

Guilty on all counts. Donald Trump is the first sitting or former president to be convicted of a felony in U.S. history, after a jury ruled that he falsified business records to cover up a sex scandal with a porn star that could have sunk his 2016 campaign.

In normal times, that might mean the end of his political ambitions. Instead, Wall Street and Silicon Valley money is flowing into his re-election campaign following the ruling.

Republican mega donors are energized. “This verdict will have less than zero impact on my support,” Omeed Malik, the president of 1789 Capital and a co-host of a Trump fund-raiser last night at the Pierre hotel, told Bloomberg. Andy Sabin, the metals magnate, was more direct. “I haven’t heard anybody who gives a …,” he told CNBC of the conviction, using an expletive.

The hedge fund billionaire (and Biden critic) Bill Ackman is set to back Trump, too.

Some big Silicon Valley names are doubling down. David Sacks, the venture capitalist who will co-host a San Francisco fund-raiser for Trump next week, called it a “sham trial” and said that the former president had lots of supporters in the tech world who were afraid to admit it. One who did is Shaun Maguire, a partner at Sequoia Capital, who gave $300,000 to the Trump campaign after the ruling, even though he acknowledged the decision could cost him friends and hurt business.

With the election likely to be decided by a handful of counties in swing states, the question is how much that big money heading to Trump will even matter.

Unhappiness with President Biden is one reason. Trump’s tough-on-immigration, low-tax, regulation-shredding stance has been a big draw for billionaires who may be calculating that an endorsement or donation now will reap a bigger return if he wins in November. Another possible calculation: backing Trump at a low point could amplify that return even more.