Donald Trump boards Air Force One at Andrews Joint Base in Maryland on July 15, 2020, while traveling. … [+]
Six more billionaires recently donated to Project Lincoln, a Republican-led super-PAC that does its best to defeat Donald Trump in November.
The biggest donor, which contributed $ 1 million, was billionaire hedge fund manager Stephen Mandel Jr., founder of Lone Pine Capital, according to Federal Election Commission documents released Wednesday.
Other supporters include Hollywood billionaire David Geffen (who donated $ 100,000), Boston media mogul Amos Hostetter Jr. ($ 100,000), and Silicon Valley investors Michael Moritz ($ 50,000) and Chris Sacca ($ 10,000). . Martha Karsh, who is married to private equity billionaire Bruce Karsh, gave $ 50,000.
This group of donors follows in the footsteps of Walmart heir Christy Walton, who donated $ 20,000 to the Lincoln Project in January. Apparently satisfied with her investment, she contributed another $ 10,000 in May. All donors except Walton have also contributed to the Joe Biden presidential campaign or a super PAC supporting the former vice president.
Although billionaires, like everyone else, can only give $ 5,600 per election cycle directly to the campaigns of presidential candidates, they can give unlimited sums to super-PACs, like the Lincoln Project. In total, the Lincoln Project has raised $ 18.7 million this year.
Those donations help fund things like political announcements, which have successfully frustrated the President. In May, a video of the Lincoln Project called “Mourning in the United States,” which criticized Trump’s response to the coronavirus, prompted the president to engage in a tirade on Twitter. He called Project Lincoln “a disgrace to Honest Abe.” and its leaders “a group of RINO Republicans who seriously failed.”
The group’s leaders include Republican strategists Steve Schmidt and Rick Wilson, as well as attorney George Conway, who is married to White House adviser Kellyanne Conway.
And they don’t just target Trump. FEC filings show that the Lincoln Project has paid to post ads that oppose its allies, including Senators Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Joni Ernst of Iowa. It has also paid for ads that support Joe Biden and Montana Governor Steve Bullock, who is running for the Senate in his state.
