Tech billionaire Mark Pincus has revealed that he is voting for Donald Trump for president, despite being a ‘lifelong Dem.’
Pincus, worth an estimated $1.4 billion, founded video game company Zynga – most famous for creating the game Farmville.
He announced his endorsement in a message on social media site X, citing conflict in the Middle East and a rise in antisemitism as key reasons for his decision.
‘Israel is America’s most loyal ally and the only Democracy in the Middle East. It is fighting Iran on 7 fronts and yet it can no longer trust the US,’ the billionaire, who is Jewish, wrote.
‘Antisemitism in America is reaching levels not seen since pre WWII.’
Pincus, who is worth an estimated $1.4 billion, founded video game company Zynga, which is most famous for the game Farmville (Pictured in 2010)
Pincus said he had made the decision to vote for the Republican candidate despite supporting the past four Democratic presidential campaigns with $1 million each, including the Biden/Harris campaign.
The billionaire visited the White House in December 2023, and later gave the maximum amount of $929,600 to the Biden Victory Fund and more than $165,00 to the Democratic National Committee.
He was then among the Democratic donors who encouraged Joe Biden to step down in July, saying the party needed to replace him with a younger presidential candidate.
But in his message on X, which was posted on Saturday, he said he had defected and would now vote Republican.
‘This past year I have seen too much,’ he said.
He added that there ‘seems to be a war against freedom of speech.’
‘Happily MSM [mainstream media] is no longer trusted but if our sources of free speech like X are censored we move a step closer to Russia and China where the state is the only voice allowed,’ he continued.
‘I know America will continue to be great under the Dems or Trump. And yet I think America and Israel will be stronger under Trump.’
Pincus, who lives in California, added: ‘My vote doesn’t matter since I live in a one party state. But I feel its important that I state my position anyway.’
Pincus said conflict in the Middle East and a rise in antisemitism were key reasons for his decision
Zynga is most famous for creating the game Farmville, an agriculture-simulation social network game where players plow land, harvest crops and raise livestock
‘I am voting for Trump,’ Pincus wrote on X
He joins a list of Silicon Valley billionaires who have come out in support for former president Trump, as he seeks to be elected for a second term in office.
Elon Musk is perhaps the most glaring example, and Trump has even pledged to appoint Musk as head of a new so-called ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ if he wins the election.
Venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya, who was an early senior executive at Facebook and formerly donated over $1 million to the Democrats, has also come out in favor of Trump in recent months.
Meanwhile, the Winklevoss twins have both donated $1 million in Bitcoin to Trump’s campaign, thanks to his support of cryptocurrency.
Jacob Helberg, an adviser to data analytics provider Palantir and a Democrat until about 2021, told Reuters in June he had recently donated around $1 million to Trump’s campaign.
‘In 2016, the number of people from Silicon Valley I knew who supported Trump was a sample of one, which was Peter,’ Helberg said, referring to Palantir co-founder and conservative venture capitalist Peter Thiel.
‘Today I count them in the dozens, if not more than that. Over the course of the past six months, we’ve started to see the dam break,’ he said.
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