Billionaire and Democrat mega-donor Reid Hoffman is sacred of retaliation against himself and others who go against Donald Trump should the ex-president retake the White House.
The LinkedIn co-founder has consistently antagonized Trump, even using his non-profit to fund E. Jean Carroll’s successful lawsuit against the former commander in chief.
Hoffman, typically a donor to establishment Democrats, gave $250,000 to a super PAC backing Nikki Haley in an attempt to hurt Trump’s primary race.
Despite being one of the richest men on earth, he says he fears reprisal from Trump for funding his political enemies.
‘Of course I’m concerned,’ Hoffman said, claiming Trump “will persecute his political opponents with the instruments of state.”
Hoffman – who was part of a group of tech executives and investors called ‘the PayPal mafia’ in the 1990s before co-founding LinkedIn and selling to Microsoft for $26.2 billion in 2013 – says that he’s not alone among his fellow one percenters in facing Trump’s wrath.
He said many business leaders keep their mouths shut on Trump because they ‘are fearful about speaking out against this because they’re fearful of retaliation.’
Other liberals like Rachel Maddow have fantasized publicly that Trump may try to put them in internment camps.
Hoffman, who two years ago apologized after it was revealed he visited disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein‘s private Caribbean Island after he was convicted of sex crimes, has called Trump ‘a spoiled rich kid who bankrupts everything he touches. Including the US economy.’
He did tell CNN, however, that despite his fears he will manage to pluck up the courage to continue speaking out against Trump.
‘When you feel fear is the precise time that you should think about stepping up,’ he said.
Hoffman argued, in the same interview, that Joe Biden is a more ‘pro-business’ president than Trump because he ‘respects the rule of law.’
‘If the only things about being pro-business are regulation and taxes, then you go, ‘Okay great, it’s whoever goes lower on regulation and lower on taxes,’ he said.
‘But the rule of law is what has made America very special. It has made an environment for business that has been spectacular and a glowing beacon to the entire world.’
‘It is the trust that other countries have in us in our system and how we interact, which allows our industries to export and allows the dollar to be the reserve world currency of the world,’ he added.
‘And that’s the reason why Biden is fundamentally, no matter what, more pro-business than Trump.’
Court documents revealed that Carroll’s lawsuit was in part funded by Hoffman, The Hill reported.
Even after supporting Carroll’s victorious lawsuit, Hoffman continued his crusade against Trump, backing Haley in the primary, amid attacks on her for taking money from Democrats.
‘Nikki Haley would not be as good for America as Joe Biden, but America would survive her administration,’ he wrote.
‘If America is to avoid another Trump presidency, it will be because Trump loses an election next year. If he is to lose, it will either be to Nikki Haley in the primary, or Joe Biden in the general,’ he added at the time.
Trump defeated Haley easily in the primary and now is even in Biden in polling to win the general in November.
Hoffman has also called Trump’s social media platform Truth Social ‘another massive failure.’
‘Trump is such a stuck-in-the-past sore loser that he’d rather spread lies, incite insurrection and damage American democracy than admit he lost a fair election,’ Hoffman said in 2022.
He added: ‘Trump does have the unique achievement of personally profiting from running money-losing casinos. (He’s great as a grifter.)’