Billionaire blasts........

'No values': Bay Area billionaire blasts Trump in exchange with Elon Musk

The exchange came as Silicon Valley donors are coalescing behind Kamala Harris

By Alec Regimbal

A Bay Area tech mogul had some choice words about former President Donald Trump in an exchange with Tesla CEO Elon Musk on X on Sunday, just minutes after President Joe Biden dropped out of this year’s presidential race.

Vinod Khosla, the billionaire venture capitalist co-founder of the bygone Sun Microsystems, called for an open Democratic convention on X following Biden’s announcement, saying he wanted to get a “more moderate candidate who can easily beat” Trump. Musk, replying to Khosla’s post, urged him to instead back Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, saying “LFG!!”

“Hard for me to support someone with no values, lies, cheats, rapes, demeans women, hates immigrants like me,” Khosla replied. “He may cut my taxes or reduce some regulation but that is no reason to accept depravity in his personal values. Do you want President who will set back climate by a decade in his first year? Do you want his example for your kids as values?”

Musk, perhaps sensing he’d touched a nerve, gave a relatively measured reply in which he admitted that Trump has flaws but said the country needs an “administration that is more likely to be meritocratic and promote individual freedoms over the heavy hand of government.”

The exchange between the two Silicon Valley heavyweights came just a day before a Wired report revealed that the region’s wealthy “Democratic megadonors” like Khosla were quickly coalescing behind Vice President Kamala Harris, whom Biden endorsed as his successor.

The report said many of those donors had previously agreed to cut off donations to the Democratic Party following Biden’s disastrous performance in a June 27 debate against Trump. In that debate, Biden often stood unblinking with his mouth agape and gave several unintelligible answers to questions from the event’s moderators.

Biden’s performance immediately set off alarm bells in the Democratic Party. He finally relented after a little more than three weeks of intense intraparty pressure to step aside — including from some high-ranking party officials, such as Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and former President Barack Obama.

Indeed, as the Wired report suggests, Biden’s departure from the race seems to have reinvigorated Democrats. On Sunday evening, a mere 7 hours after Biden dropped out, the party’s fundraising apparatus, ActBlue, announced on X that it had raised $46.7 million since Harris officially launched her presidential campaign.

After his brutal takedown of Trump, Khosla — who lives in Portola Valley and even held a fundraiser for Biden earlier this year — continued to muse on X about the direction of the party. He’s calling for an open race at next month’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago, but he maintains that beating Trump in November is paramount. 

“I want an open process at the convention and not a coronation,” Khosla said. “The key still is who can best beat @realDonaTrump above all other priorities given how much a danger he is.”