Donald Trump

Joe Lancaster | 10.28.2024 3:40 PM

A number of the wealthiest Americans are choosing not to publicly endorse a candidate for president in 2024, and new reporting suggests they fear retribution if former President Donald Trump is reelected. No matter which side of the aisle you find yourself on, the solution to this quandary should be simple: shrink the size of government and constrain the powers of the president.

"Numerous billionaires and other leading executives have taken steps in recent months to stay out of the race," as Jeff Stein, Jacqueline Alemany, and Josh Dawsey reported in The Washington Post on Monday. "Others who previously backed Democrats have stayed silent this election, which some critics and Trump supporters alike have interpreted as a peace offering to the GOP presidential nominee."

Warren Buffett endorsed the Democratic candidate in the 2008, 2012, and 2016 contests, but he announced last week that he "does not currently and will not prospectively…endorse and support political candidates." (Buffett also declined to endorse in 2020.)

Meanwhile, both the Post and the Los Angeles Times planned to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris, before Jeff Bezos and Patrick Soon-Shiong—respectively, the papers' owners—intervened to prevent the endorsement of any candidate. Each move sparked considerable backlash, with 8 percent of the Post's paid subscribers having since canceled their subscriptions. Semafor's Max Tani reported that The New York Times even saw "a small but noticeable wave of cancelations" from confused subscribers after the Post's non-endorsement, including "emails to the effect of 'fuck Bezos.'" (The New York Times endorsed Harris in September.)

The Post report is clear about the rationale, with billionaires "expressing real concerns about the potential Trump administration and whether they will be punished for publicly coming out in favor of Harris." This could take the form of either unfavorable........

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