Attendees, with white-and-red gift bags and lanyards, knew to be closelipped when approached by hotel interlopers
or by the Times reporter, who was not invited to the closed-press festivities.

But a copy of the agenda listed remarks by several tech billionaires, including the Anduril co-founder #Palmer #Luckey and the venture capitalist #Marc #Andreessen, who spoke about his support for deregulating technology
and the mixed reaction in Silicon Valley to his endorsement of Mr. Trump, according to attendees.

There were tech up-and-comers, too:
Donald Trump #Jr. announced at the welcome dinner that he was entering venture capital.

And days before the president-elect chose Robert F. #Kennedy Jr. for health and human services secretary,
Mr. Kennedy spoke extensively about his public-health work to a standing ovation.

Ms. #Wiles also led a session on “2024 Election Analysis,” where she gave a preview of Mr. Trump’s first days as president.

“It’s the domestic ‘Davos in the desert,’” said the Rockbridge backer #Omeed #Malik, referring to the annual business conference in Riyadh, and Donald Trump Jr.’s new business partner.

➡️Rockbridge began with more humility.

Back in 2019, Mr. #Vance, then best known as the author of “Hilbilly Elegy,” and a conservative media figure named #Chris #Buskirk began informally hosting a series of small dinners
that would eventually become called Rockbridge.

The group drew early support from the venture capitalist #Peter #Thiel and eventually caught the attention of Donald J. Trump, who spoke at a few meetings.

Once in the fall and once in the spring, Rockbridge began to gather at places like the Four Seasons in Palm Beach, Fla.,
or the Ritz-Carlton in Dallas for three days of political panels and business networking.

Speakers included people like #Tucker #Carlson; the Thiel protégé #Blake #Masters; the casino mogul #Steve #Wynn; the investor #David #Sacks; and #Woody #Johnson, the billionaire owner of the New York Jets.

Not all attendees have politics at the top of their mind.

Some are primarily interested in business, seeing Rockbridge as a conservative-tinged version of the elite Sun Valley conference.

#RockbridgeNetwork #RebekahMercer #ElonMusk #KenHowery #LukeNosek

During this year's Republican primaries, Nelson Peltz gave $100,000 to a super pac supporting Tim Scott,
the South Carolina senator,
but Scott dropped out before a single G.O.P. vote was cast.

By the time of Peltz’s dinner, it was clear that Trump would secure the Republican nomination for an unprecedented third consecutive election.

Peltz, who was no longer on speaking terms with the ex-President, opened the discussion with a blunt assessment of the race.

🔥“I don’t like Donald Trump,” an attendee recalled Peltz saying.

“He’s a terrible human being, but our country’s in a bad place, and we can’t afford Joe Biden.”

So, Peltz concluded, however much they might dislike it, ❌“we’ve all got to throw our support behind him.”

Some of Peltz’s guests remained skeptical,
holding to the view, as the attendee put it, that
“Trump’s a terrible person
—I’m going to focus on the Senate.”

Most of the donors, however, adopted a more pragmatic approach to the ex-President.

Many of them had been granted significant access to the White House during his four years in office.

Some were expected to be considered for senior roles in a second term:

Trump has personally floated the name of the hedge-fund tycoon #John #Paulson, for instance, as a potential Secretary of the Treasury, touting him as
💥“a money machine.”

“They know how transactional he is,” the attendee told me.

“They’re hoping to have some influence over the course of appointments and therefore the direction of his Administration.”

A few of Peltz’s guests were all in.
#Steve #Wynn, the Las Vegas gambling titan, has known Trump for decades;

his wife, #Andrea #Hissom, is close to the former First Lady, Melania, and the two couples have spent time together in Palm Beach.

And then there was #Elon #Musk, the world’s richest man, who had reportedly got to know Peltz through Peltz’s son #Diesel, a tech entrepreneur.

At the time, Musk had said that he would NOT back a candidate in the Presidential race.

♦️By the fall, he would enthusiastically endorse Trump, spending $75 million to support him through a new super pac,
-- and spreading pro-Trump lies and conspiracy theories on his social-media platform, X.

Trump, the richest man ever to serve in the White House, is himself a billionaire,
though the extent of his wealth has long been in question.

(As of mid-October, with stock in Trump’s social-media venture, Truth Social, experiencing a pre-election bounce, Forbes estimated his net worth at about $5.5 billion.)

In 2016, Trump hardly bothered to court big donors.

He was shunned by much of the G.O.P. élite and largely self-funded his Republican primary campaign.

He lambasted Jeb Bush, the brother and son of Presidents, as a tool of the moneyed class.

👉“Super pacs are a disaster,” Trump said in a 2016 debate.
“They’re a scam. They cause dishonesty.
And you’d better get rid of them, because they are causing a lot of bad decisions to be made by some very good people.”

⚠️But in 2020, as an incumbent President, Trump embraced super pacs and their funders.

The two main super pacs supporting his campaign raised
💥$255 million on his behalf that year;

his total fund-raising came to more than
💥 $1 billion.

However, Biden, like Hillary Clinton four years earlier, raised even more than Trump,
bringing over-all spending in the 2020 Presidential race to a record🔥 $5.7 billion.

#NelsonPeltz