"Among the mogul class’s truths-universally-acknowledged is the idea that money is best obtained via deregulation and tax cuts – and, in the case of, say, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, ever-more lucrative government contracts. As for how gossip is obtained …"
#Peltz, the billionaire who hosted fellow Republican donors in Palm Beach,
also had direct access to the White House.
A few months after Trump’s Inauguration, he met privately with the President in the Oval Office, presenting him with a written dossier that made the case that Amazon
and its owner, Jeff Bezos,
were responsible for the economic woes of the U.S. Postal Service.
Trump, who had long attacked Bezos as the proprietor of the Washington Post,
summoned a senior official to hear Peltz’s complaint.
According to the official, Peltz told Trump that
“the reason why the Post Office is in the red is almost entirely because of Amazon,”
claiming, falsely,
that it received preferential rates,
benefitted from “unfair competition,”
and ought to be considered an antitrust violator.
Trump’s staff tried to figure out what Peltz’s interest was in the matter.
It turned out that Trian Fund Management, Peltz’s asset-management firm,
had recently taken a $3.5-billion stake in Procter & Gamble,
the consumer-products giant.
Peltz, an activist investor who buys his way into corporate-leadership roles,
often by prompting proxy fights,
considered Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods a threat to his business.
On December 29, 2017, Trump tweeted,
“Why is the United States Post Office, which is losing many billions of dollars a year, while charging Amazon and others so little to deliver their packages, making Amazon richer and the Post Office dumber and poorer? Should be charging MUCH MORE!”
...
#Isaac #Perlmutter, the former head of Marvel Entertainment,
which he sold to Disney, in 2009, for $4 billion,
was also at Peltz’s breakfast for Trump in Palm Beach.
(Trump personally introduced the pair at Mar-a-Lago, where Perlmutter has a regular table next to the ex-President’s;
last year, Peltz and Perlmutter joined forces when Peltz launched an unsuccessful bid to win a seat on Disney’s board.)
Perlmutter donated $5 million to Trump’s 2016 campaign;
his wife, #Laura, was a member of Trump’s Inauguration committee.
Soon after Trump became President, he installed Perlmutter and two of Perlmutter’s friends from Florida as de-facto overseers of the Department of Veterans Affairs,
an agency with an annual budget of some $200 billion.
“On any veterans issue the first person the President calls is Ike,”
a former Administration official told ProPublica, which revealed the arrangement.
How Republican Billionaires Learned to Love Trump Again
The former President has been fighting to win back his wealthiest donors,
while actively courting new ones
—What do they expect to get in return?
In February, the billionaire investor #Nelson #Peltz convened two dozen of the country’s wealthiest Republicans for a dinner at Montsorrel,
his $300-million oceanfront estate in Palm Beach,
just down the road from Mar-a-Lago.
During the 2020 campaign, Peltz had hosted a lavish fund-raiser for Donald Trump at the mansion,
which took in $10 million.
But, in the aftermath of the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, Peltz,
like many Republicans of all income levels,
had publicly denounced the President.
In an interview with CNBC on January 7th, he apologized for his vote and said that Trump would always be remembered for that day’s “disgrace.”
“As an American,” he added, “I’m embarrassed.”
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/10/28/how-republican-billionaires-learned-to-love-trump-again
#ElonMusk’s reactionary #anger was fueled, too, by the decision of one of his children to #transition; he later said that he had been “tricked” into authorizing #gender-affirming #care for her.
#Musk had left the dinner at #Peltz’s house dissatisfied…. He had started talking privately to #Lonsdale, who was a member of his new friend group in Texas, & a few others about how he might take matters into his own hands.
#MaleSupremacy #heterosexism #Tech #Republicans #Kleptocracy #RulingClass
In the months leading up to the gathering at #Peltz’s home, #ElonMusk helped spread the idea—a central plank of #MAGA’s election denialism—across his own social media platform, X.…
Now, over a dinner of shrimp & lobster tails, he put the matter in stark, existential terms: Were Biden to win in Nov, Democrats would use the ongoing flood of #immigrants to create a permanent majority. If they failed to get #Trump into office, #Musk said, this would be America’s last free election.
#Peltz gave #Musk the honor of speaking first. He told the group that he had always been a Democrat, but no longer. And, despite being new to political campaigns, he had some ideas to share. What worked w/his electric car company, Tesla, he said, was not paid advertising but word of mouth. If everyone in the room told two friends to vote for #Trump — & told them to tell two friends — he would win. Then Musk underscored what he saw as the real stakes of the presidential race.
#Peltz, who was 81 at the time & made his fortune via junk bonds & leveraged buyouts, had gathered some traditional high rollers, including the hedge-fund manager #JohnPaulson & the Las Vegas casino #tycoon #SteveWynn, as well as #RonnaMcDaniel, then the chair of the #RNC. He had also invited #ElonMusk.
#Kleptocracy #RulingClass #Bourgeoisie #Aristocracy #Totalitarianism
There were plenty of people in the room who had publicly disavowed #Trump after the #Jan6 #insurrection at the Capitol — #Peltz among them — but it was pretty clear now that he was going to be the candidate, & it was time to get onboard & figure out how to help him win. There were a lot of problems. An especially uncomfortable one was that a lot of donor money was going to paying Trump’s mounting #legal bills rather than building a serious political campaign.
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Rosie Walters
Chuck Darwin
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