One night in March in the nation's capital, Republican Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio sneaked out of a conservative celebration to join a group having dinner with Donald Trump Jr.
After the meal, Vance decided on a whim to introduce the friend he'd just introduced at the dinner to the former president's son, and soon the three Republicans — Vance, Trump Jr. and Vance's friend, Silicon Valley entrepreneur David Sachs — were spending about 30 minutes getting to know each other in a private room at the Conrad Hotel.
At an impromptu after-dinner get-together just hours after Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee, Sachs signaled his all-in on Trump 2024.
On Thursday night, it was Sachs' turn to host the Trump campaign on his own California soil. The former president flew to San Francisco in person to attend a fundraiser at Sachs' $20 million mansion on one of the most exclusive streets in the city's posh Pacific Heights neighborhood. The first private campaign fundraiser since Trump was convicted last week was expected to raise more than $12 million, event organizers said.
Beyond the financial aspect, this fundraising event at the heart of the liberal tech industry was also something of a landmark, at least symbolically.
Four years ago, and certainly eight years ago, the Bay Area was still a haven of liberalism and barely supported Trump. But the Obama-era friendship between Silicon Valley and the Democratic Party is on the verge of collapse. These days, entrepreneurs are as vocal about President Biden as they are about FTC Chair Lina Khan, who has risen to Darth Vader-like status in some parts of the tech industry.
To be sure, most of the tech elite maintain liberal leanings on everything from immigration to climate change. Biden visited Silicon Valley last month, raising millions of dollars and being feted by internet luminaries including venture capitalist Vinod Khosla and former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. But times are changing, and at the national level, Republicans see an opportunity to embrace wealthy entrepreneurs who have shifted to the right in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and resistance to the 2020 social justice movements.
“It is no exaggeration to say that there is a wellspring of support in Silicon Valley,” Sachs wrote in a statement to The New York Times, “especially given the backlash against the political prosecution of Trump.”
Mr. Sachs told friends he wanted the San Francisco event to be something of a statement: that Silicon Valley is a changed place, and that San Francisco is no longer the liberal mecca of the Grateful Dead and Allen Ginsberg.
A longtime associate of Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, Sachs has transformed in recent years from a prominent Silicon Valley executive into an unlikely media celebrity, especially among the right-leaning aspiring entrepreneurs who tune in to his popular podcast, “All In.” He’s also significantly increased his political involvement, hiring an aide to manage his donations, starting his own super PAC and, most recently, cultivating ties to Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida headquarters, that he had no ties to just a few months ago.
“People feel like they have a lot more freedom now,” said Saurabh Sharma, president of American Moment, a conservative advocacy group that organized the gala featuring Sachs and Vance. “We're not in 2016 anymore.”
The visit to San Francisco was Trump's first visit to a left-leaning city in at least a decade. The former president has called the city “nasty,” “filthy” and “drug-ridden,” and frequently cited San Francisco politicians, including Gov. Gavin Newsom and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as examples of liberal excess.
Some attendees at Mr. Sachs' event flew in from far away. Two ticket options, $50,000 and $300,000 a pop, were sold out at the home of Mr. Sachs, which he and his wife, Jacqueline, call “Broadcliff.” Several people who belatedly expressed interest in attending found out they couldn't go. Later in the weekend, Mr. Trump will be hosted in Orange County in Southern California by another tech entrepreneur, Palmer Luckey, a former Facebook executive who later co-founded defense technology company Anduril.
People involved in the San Francisco fundraiser said it raised about $12 million, exceeding its original goal of about $5 million. About 25 people attended the dinner, with about 50 more expected to attend a larger reception. Trump flew to the event after attending a town hall meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, on Thursday night, marking his first campaign appearance since his conviction.
San Francisco police had cordoned off several blocks around Sachs' home, and a small group of Trump supporters rallied outside the barricades, waving flags and occasionally exchanging insults with passersby. Dinner attendees arrived in tinted SUVs, some of whom waved as they passed.
Several prominent Silicon Valley Republicans were absent from the event. Mr. Thiel, who is in Europe this week for the Bilderberg Group's annual meeting, was not expected to attend, according to two people familiar with his plans. Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen also will not attend, according to a person familiar with his plans. Keith Rabois, a prominent Republican donor who, along with Mr. Sachs and Mr. Thiel, was an early executive at PayPal, did not attend, but his husband, Jacob Helberg, and guest Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., did.
The fundraiser was well-attended by crypto industry leaders. Politically active crypto entrepreneur Ryan Selkis told people he plans to attend. The crypto industry has come under scathing criticism from Biden recently, according to people involved with the event, whose veto of a crypto-friendly bill last week drew several attendees to Trump's rally.
“While the Palm Beach event is more likely to attract wealthy people who want to go to France or Britain, this one is more of a 'enough is enough' message from the business community,” said Trevor Traina, a former ambassador to Austria in the Trump administration who was a friend of Sachs' and was planning to attend the event.
Sachs had two main sources of support.
The first was Chamath Palihapitiya, an early AOL and Facebook executive who is now one of Sachs' so-called “best friends” on his joint podcast and a former major Democratic donor. The other was Vance, an Ohio senator who briefly lived in San Francisco and worked as a venture capitalist for Thiel's firm. At the fundraiser Thursday night, Sachs paid tribute to Vance, saying the event would never have happened without his help. Vance, who was also at the event, is co-founder of Rockbridge Network, a popular donor network among Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, and urged his industry friends to attend the gathering.
Vance calls Sachs “one of his closest confidants” in politics. Sachs worked with Musk to help unsuccessfully run Gov. Ron DeSantis' presidential bid in early 2023 and was slow to embrace Trump. After the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, Sachs said the Capitol riot disqualified Trump from holding public office, but Vance tried to change Sachs' mind for more than a year afterward.
Sachs told friends that he no longer thinks it's that provocative to be a Trump supporter in Silicon Valley.
When Trump visited Silicon Valley for a fundraiser in the fall of 2019, organizers, fearing backlash, tried hard to disguise the event's origins, not telling guests its exact location until closer to the fundraiser. Today, Trump supporters in tech are a source of pride; a sign in itself. Ron Conway, a leader of liberal tech executives for decades, was so alarmed by the trend that he urged several friends to stay away from the event, according to a person familiar with his thinking. Other Democratic veterans in tech have privately questioned the organizers, effectively asking if they had lost their minds.
Sean Steele, a Republican National Committee member from California who has been politically active for decades, called the GOP's pro-Trump donors “the real new fighters.”
“I gave up on Silicon Valley years ago,” Steele said. “Change has happened. Real money is coming.”
Sacks had expressed interest in turning the event into a content-creation opportunity, including pulling out microphones to record a live podcast with Sacks and Palihapitiya. That plan fell through. Donor invitations would still have featured the two professional venture capitalists with the highly specific title “All-In Co-Hosts” above their names.
Kate Conger Contributed report.
