LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman considering leaving US after Trump victory: report
Reid Hoffman, the billionaire co-founder of LinkedIn and a Democratic Party mega-donor, is reportedly so distraught over President-elect Donald Trump’s victory that he has considered leaving the country.
Hoffman, who was vocal in his support of Vice President Kamala Harris’ failed campaign, has told friends that he is thinking of relocating overseas due to fears that Trump would use his power in the White House to seek retribution against his political enemies, according to the New York Times.
After the first failed assassination attempt on Trump in July, Hoffman found himself in hot water after previous comments surfaced in which he said he wished the president-elect was an “actual martyr.”
In April last year, the Times reported that Hoffman, who donated $10 million to a super PAC backing Harris, also helped bankroll a defamation lawsuit filed by former New York magazine writer E. Jean Carroll against Trump.
Trump’s lawyers argued in court at the time that Hoffman’s role in financing the lawsuit raised “significant questions” about Carroll’s credibility.
A jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in 1996 and for defamation. She was awarded $5 million in damages. Earlier this year, another jury awarded Carroll an additional $83.3 million in damages for defamation after Trump said she was lying about rape allegations.
The Post has sought comment from Hoffman and the Trump transition team.
Hoffman isn’t the only deep-pocketed Democrat donor who has been willing to entertain the idea of moving abroad.
According to the Times, several major donors and their advisers have broached the prospect of leaving the country in private conversations.
The nervous Democratic donor class has tried to regroup in the wake of Trump’s victory over Harris on Nov. 5.
A four-day gathering of the Democracy Alliance, a left-leaning donor network, in Washington, DC, had the feel of a “funeral,” according to two attendees who spoke to the Times.
“People are kind of shell-shocked — and trying to figure out what happened,” tech mogul Steve Silberstein told the publication.
“People are trying to adjust to reality and plot out a path forward.”
Another Democrat-backing tech mogul who is said to be anxious about the incoming Trump administration is OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who is considered an enemy by Elon Musk, the Tesla boss who has the ear of the president-elect.
Altman, who is reported to be despised by Musk after the former won a power struggle at OpenAI, has tried to penetrate Trump’s inner circle by going through intermediaries, but so far has been unsuccessful due to the widely shared sentiment that Musk would oppose, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The Journal reported that Altman has reached out to Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner and his brother, venture capital mogul Josh Kushner, in hopes of ingratiating himself with the president-elect’s orbit — but without much success so far.
Recently, Altman managed to score a meeting with Howard Lutnick, the Cantor Fitzgerald CEO and co-chair of Trump’s transition who is also in line to become the next commerce secretary.
According to the Journal, Altman told Lutnick, a Musk ally, about OpenAI’s plans to boost investments in the US by building large data centers and hiring workers.
Musk’s lawyers on Friday filed for an injunction against OpenAI and Microsoft in an attempt to stop the ChatGPT maker from converting to a for-profit company. Microsoft is a key backer of OpenAI.
The Post has sought comment from Josh Kushner, Jared Kushner and Lutnick.
