Trump's Billionaire Boom

How he gets away with promising to make the rich richer.

- Jonathan Chait

ONE OF THE few advantages Joe Biden's campaign possessed at the outset of the year was money. The president had built a fundraising base as an incumbent, and many wealthy Republicans were estranged from Donald Trump over his coup attempt and their support for his ill-fated primary rivals. This spring, even though the battle lines of the presidential campaign have barely budged on the surface, that financial advantage has melted away as conservative billionaires have flocked to Trump's side.

When describing their reasoning, several of the donors have offered up the peculiar rationale that left-wing protesters have gone so far in their attacks against Biden's support for Israel that they somehow feel compelled to also oppose the president. "Due to a dramatic change in circumstances," said financier Eric Levine in March, describing progressive protests against Biden, "I have decided I will vote for Trump in November." Recently, Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman explained his reversal in similar terms: "The dramatic rise of antisemitism has led me to focus on the consequences of upcoming elections with greater urgency."

The eagerness of billionaires to support a candidate who is also a billionaire and is promising to extend tax cuts for billionaires isn't exactly dramatic. What is notable is how brazenly this alliance has been consummated without dispelling Trump's image as the enemy of the well-to-do and champion of the common man.