They're married. They're mega-rich. They work in tech & venture-capital circles. And they're all-in on Trump, despite even the odious Peter Thiel severing ties with him. đ€ą
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Soon after a Manhattan jury found Donald Trump guilty of falsifying business records last month, the former president headed uptown to a restaurant, where a dinner party awaited him. Trump, who appeared unfazed by the conviction, walked in with a smile on his face, greeted by about 20 supporters and members of his innermost circle. The crowd included his son Eric, longtime ally and billionaire John Catsimatidis and a more recent addition to the crew, Palantir adviser Jacob Helberg.
The group dined on a choice of steak or fish and threw out suggestions for vice president. It was at least the third time Helberg, who has donated $1 million to Trumpâs campaign, had been in the same room with the candidate in the last several months. âI believe that conviction was 100% political,â said Helberg, 34, when I met him at the Waldorf Astoria in Washington, a week after the trial. (He declined to discuss the dinnerâs details.)
In a presidential election year marked by stark division, Helberg has emerged from the sidelines of politics and tech as a rising GOP power broker with a rare ability to flow between different worldsâacting as a link between Silicon Valley and Washington while holding sway with liberals and conservatives alike.
For a time, he existed mostly out of the limelight, serving on the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a little-known but decades-old group created by Congress to monitor trade between the two countries. As part of that role, he would meet with policymakers like Republican Congressman Steve Scalise every few weeks to push for a ban on TikTok, the hit social media app critics have blasted as a national security threat based on its ties to China.
Then in May he vaulted to greater attention when his annual Hill and Valley Forum attracted national headlines for the first time. As its name suggests, the event is a conclave for Silicon Valley and Capitol Hill leaders, and this year it concentrated on artificial intelligence and, naturally, China. Speakers came from both sides of the aislesâsenators including Republican Lindsey Graham and Democrat Cory Bookerâwhile Helberg leveraged his Palantir connections to get CEO Alex Karp on the stage, too. A pre-recorded Trump video closed out the day. [Ed. Gee, what do Lindsey & Cory have in common...]
As Trump tries to win a return to the White House, he is attempting to wrestle back support from the business elitesâbacking that evaporated over the course of two impeachments, an insurrection and a global pandemic. (He even lost Peter Thiel: The billionaire offered hefty support to Trump in his first White House run and funded Trump protĂ©gĂ©s in 2020 but has declined to give anything to GOP candidates this year.) Just a week ago, though, Trump made a rare trip to San Francisco for a pricey fundraiser thrown by âAll Inâ podcast co-host David Sacks. Helberg attended. âIt was amazing to see that so many people in the Bay Area are now willing to support the presidentâs election campaign,â Helberg said.
Biden still maintains a wide swath of support in liberal-leaning Silicon Valley and other parts of corporate America. He has done his own Bay Area fundraisers and has deployed Hollywood billionaire Jeff Katzenberg to help him collect more money.
Nonetheless, Republicans see an opportunity to win more support from tech leaders who are dissatisfied with the Biden administration, and especially with his Federal Trade Commission chair, Lina Khan. Helberg, a onetime Democrat and former Google policy adviser who is married to venture capitalist Keith Rabois, is already playing an increasing role in that GOP courtship of Silicon Valley. And should Trump prevail, he is well positioned to catapult to even greater influence.