Trump Promises to
Crypto, Vaping, Tobacco, Oil and Musk in Return for Donations
Crypto.
Big Oil. Tobacco. Vaping. The former president has been making overt promises to
industry leaders, a level of explicitness rarely seen in modern presidential politics.
On
a Friday in late September, Donald J. Trump took time off the campaign trail for
a closed-door meeting at Mar-a-Lago with officials representing the vaping industry.
The
vaping emissaries talked about loosening regulations and told the former president
he had “saved” the industry in the past. The group — including Mr. Trump’s 2016
campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, and another 2016 campaign aide, Michael Rubino — showed him mock-ups of mailers they were sending out
through Election Day. Mr. Trump asked for input on what he could say on social media
about a complicated regulatory issue.
Within
hours, Mr. Trump had posted about his allegiances to the embattled e-cigarette sector.
“I saved Flavored Vaping in 2019,” Mr. Trump wrote on
social media. “I’ll save Vaping again!”
The
head of the Vapor Technology Association, Tony Abboud,
who was also in the meeting, quickly declared he was “pleased” that Mr. Trump was
“continuing to fight for vapers.” The vaping industry has not been a significant
contributor in the presidential race, but the Vapor Technology Association has been
quietly sending versions of those mailers to voters in battleground states warning
that Democrats want “to steal vapes from freedom-loving Americans.”
As
Mr. Trump seeks a return to the White House, he has come a long way from his 2016
campaign pitch that he was so rich he was incorruptible. Back then, he mocked the
G.O.P.’s donor-lobbyist class and boasted in his announcement speech, “I don’t need
anybody’s money.” Today, Mr. Trump is looking everywhere for cash: asking small
donors online, pressing fellow billionaires over private meals in Trump Tower and
lobbying for donations from industries regulated by the government.
As
he does so, he is sometimes making overt promises about what he will do once he’s
in office, a level of explicitness toward individual industries and a handful of
billionaires that has rarely been seen in modern presidential politics.
In
some cases, Mr. Trump has sought to shake loose cash from industries like oil and
energy that have long aligned with his deregulation agenda. In others, Mr. Trump
has flipped his positions, such as on crypto.
Not
long ago, he was warning that cryptocurrencies seemed “like a scam” that could facilitate
crimes, and he supported stiff regulation. Now, he is aggressively courting the
industry, promising to make America “the crypto capital of the planet” and to fire
its most hated regulator on Day 1.
Millions
of dollars in crypto-industry contributions have followed.
“Former
President Trump has a ‘For Sale’ sign around his neck and appears to be willing
to sell basically any policy in exchange for campaign contributions,” said Dennis
Kelleher, president of Better Markets, a nonprofit that
seeks stronger regulations.
The
Trump operation had feared being outspent when it was competing against President
Biden. But the matter of raising money became especially urgent once he was running
against Vice President Kamala Harris, who raised twice as much as him over the summer.
In
a statement, Karoline Leavitt, a Trump campaign spokeswoman, said the former president
had proposed policies to help people “struggling from the weak and terrible policies”
of the current administration.
“President
Trump only takes his cues on policy from one group of people: the American people,”
Ms. Leavitt said. She said he was supported by “people who share his vision of American
energy dominance” as well as “crypto innovators and others in the technology sector”
who are “under attack.”
In
2016, Mr. Trump vowed to “drain the swamp,” though he was not initially enamored with the phrase. “A little hokey,”
he called it. But crowds roared, and he kept repeating it.
As
president, he did no such thing. Far from it: He hired top executives from Wall
Street firms like Goldman Sachs and from the fossil fuel and pharmaceutical industries.
He ended the practice of making public White House visitor logs. His family operated
a for-profit hotel blocks from the White House that became
a den of lobbying activity and a must-stay place for those looking to curry favor. People who paid pricey membership dues to join his private
club at Mar-a-Lago had easy access to Mr. Trump as he dined on the patio, often
taking the opportunity to pitch their pet interests.
“Trump
was the first transactional president,” said Scott Reed, a longtime
Republican consultant and former top political strategist for the United States
Chamber of Commerce. “He’s now taken it to a new level.”
Crypto
There
are few industries Mr. Trump has done more to court than the crypto world. And there
is no industry for which his policy reversal has been more headturning.
Five
months after leaving office, in June 2021, Mr. Trump said cryptocurrencies should
be regulated into near oblivion. “I don’t think we should have all of the Bitcoins
of the world out there,” Mr. Trump said. “I think they should regulate them very,
very high.”
Three
years and plenty of campaign cash later, the former president sounds a lot like
a budding cryptocurrency entrepreneur. That’s because he is one.
Mr.
Trump’s sons have embarked on a cryptocurrency endeavor
that his advisers anticipate could prove lucrative.
In
June, Mr. Trump met at Mar-a-Lago with a group of Bitcoin miners. Within hours,
he posted about Bitcoin mining and how he wanted “all the remaining Bitcoin to be
MADE IN THE USA!!!” He stopped by a different crypto event at Mar-a-Lago the month
before and shook hands with one crypto executive, Ryan Selkis,
who posted a photo with the caption: “$100 million+ from the crypto community. Consider
it done, Mr. President.” Mr. Selkis soon gave $50,000.
The
$100 million figure overstates the disclosed crypto-industry investment in Mr. Trump.
But industry leaders have given him significant support amid concerns they have
about the Biden administration’s strict regulation attempts. Mr. Trump’s main fund-raising
committee has reported receiving more than $8.2 million in cryptocurrency donations
through September, his campaign said. Millions and millions more have been given
in actual dollars.
Tyler
and Cameron Winklevoss, co-founders of the crypto platform Gemini, each gave more
than $1.25 million to Mr. Trump and supportive super PACs after attending a fund-raising
dinner for him in San Francisco. The dinner was hosted by David Sacks, who is an
outspoken crypto booster.
Mr.
Trump dramatically trimmed the Republican Party’s official platform in 2024, but
the revised version still made space for “the right to mine Bitcoin,” “the right
to self-custody of digital assets” and opposition to a central bank digital currency.
In
July, Mr. Trump appeared at a crypto industry conference and promised to fire Gary
Gensler, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, on his first day
— a top crypto priority. It is unclear whether the president would have that authority,
but Mr. Trump has made it clear he intends to try to bring independent agencies
under direct presidential control.
Ms.
Harris has taken some steps to woo the deep-pocketed crypto community, including
inserting a line in an economic speech about the importance of “blockchain.” And
she has some crypto megadonors, such as Chris Larsen, who has contributed more than
$12 million to her super PAC and her campaign.
Mr.
Trump is also promising to free from prison Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the online
illicit marketplace Silk Road, by commuting his sentence. Mr. Ulbricht has become
a cause célèbre of the crypto community. Jesse Powell, the founder of the crypto
exchange Kraken, posted in June on X about his $1 million donation to Mr. Trump
with the hashtag #freeross and a thumbs-up picture of his meeting with Mr. Trump.
“If
crypto had no money to give, Trump would still be the crypto president,” said Trevor
Traina, who served as Mr. Trump’s ambassador to Austria,
is now in the crypto business and has given more than $400,000 this year. “But fortunately
for Trump, crypto does have money to give.”
Big
Tobacco and Marijuana
Mr.
Trump has personally long opposed smoking. The tobacco industry, however, is wagering
heavily on him in 2024.
A
subsidiary of the tobacco giant Reynolds American is the largest corporate contributor
to Mr. Trump’s main super PAC. The business, RAI Services Company, has contributed
$8.5 million so far.
The
donations come as cigarette makers are seeking to fight off a proposed ban on menthol
cigarettes that has been advanced — and then paused — by the Biden administration.
Brian
Ballard, a lobbyist and fund-raiser for Mr. Trump who himself has given $260,000
this year, heads a lobbying firm that has represented Reynolds for years. Executives
for Reynolds American and Mr. Ballard have met several times with Mr. Trump, according
to two people familiar with the meetings, which were first reported by The Washington
Post. They discussed policies in a second potential Trump term.
Mr.
Ballard declined to comment. Reynolds American did not respond to a request for
comment.
Another
group, Americans for Consumer Protection, is spending $10 million in five battleground
states targeting Black voters with a message blaming “Harris and Democrats” for
the proposed menthol ban. The group does not disclose its donors.
Mr.
Trump has not yet staked out a public position on the menthol ban. He has, however,
taken a proactive and new position on marijuana.
In
2015, he said that legalizing it was “bad” and that “I feel strongly about that.”
But this year, there is a major legalization measure on the ballot in Florida, and
Mr. Trump has been lobbied to support it.
Over
the summer, Mr. Trump met privately with Kim Rivers, the chief executive of Trulieve, the cannabis company behind the Florida measure, according
to people briefed on the meeting, including State Senator Joe Gruters, who is also supporting the Florida measure and had
his own meeting with Mr. Trump.
Mr.
Gruters called Mr. Trump the “King Kong” of the Republican
Party and said his support was important. “I would say it was a collective effort
to try to educate him and encourage him to come out on the positive on this,” he
said.
Mr.
Trump did just that in two posts at the end of August and in early September. “It
is time to end needless arrests and incarcerations of adults for small amounts of
marijuana for personal use,” he wrote in a social media statement, announcing he
would vote for the Florida measure.
Ms.
Rivers’s company has poured more than $100 million into
the Florida ballot measure but has not made any disclosed donations to the former
president. She told Mr. Trump in the meeting that she “wants to be helpful,” according
to a person with knowledge of her remark.
“We
don’t talk about our contributions to anyone,” Ms. Rivers said on Wednesday at an
event in a Trulieve dispensary near Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
“And we contribute widely and broadly.”
Elon
Musk and Jeff Yass
In
April 2023, when Elon Musk was considering supporting Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida,
the former president sharply criticized the world’s richest man for seeking favors from the federal government.
“Elon
is just trying to make friends with the absolutely horrible Biden Administration
because of all the government subsidies he gets, and all the permits he needs,”
Mr. Trump posted on his social media website, Truth Social.
A
year and a half later, Mr. Musk is leading an effort to elect Mr. Trump that has
no parallel in American history.
He
is steering a super PAC that he has seeded with $118 million of his own money. He
is relentlessly promoting Mr. Trump’s candidacy on X, the platform he owns. And
he has campaigned for Mr. Trump in Pennsylvania, offering $1 million payouts to voters who sign his petitions.
Mr.
Trump has responded in kind. Far from being concerned that Mr. Musk is seeking favors as a major contractor with the federal government, Mr.
Trump has promised that if he’s elected, he will appoint Mr. Musk to run an audit
of the government to root out waste, fraud and abuse. The move would create conflicts
of interest on a scale unseen in recent memory, with Mr. Musk potentially exercising
power over parts of the government that pour billions of dollars into his businesses.
Mr.
Trump has recently praised Mr. Musk’s space business, which receives government
funding. And while he still opposes electric vehicle mandates, Mr. Trump no longer
bashes them like he used to.
“I’m
for electric cars — I have to be, because Elon endorsed me very strongly,” Mr. Trump
declared at a rally in August.
Mr.
Musk is not the only billionaire former critic Mr. Trump has courted.
In
early 2024, Mr. Trump met briefly backstage at an event with Jeff Yass, the billionaire
investor whose firm owns a significant stake in the Chinese company that owns TikTok. The two men did not speak about TikTok,
people familiar with the encounter said, but rather Mr. Yass’s animating cause of
school choice.
Still,
Mr. Trump soon opposed a bill in Congress that demanded the sale of TikTok and eventually joined the platform himself.
At
a recent event in Erie in Mr. Yass’s home state of Pennsylvania, Mr. Trump, reading
from the teleprompter, gave an unusually detailed shout-out to state-level legislation
that Mr. Yass has lobbied aggressively for on school choice.
“The
lifeline scholarship bill would be a great start for those students trapped in the
worst-performing schools in Pennsylvania,” Mr. Trump said in Erie. The former president
seemed surprised as the crowd cheered. “Oh, you do know that? Good,” he said.
Mr.
Yass has made more than $90 million in federal donations since 2023 but has not
given any disclosed funds to Mr. Trump. Mr. Yass is a major financier of Republican
politics in Pennsylvania, which is seen as 2024’s most consequential presidential
battleground.
Mr.
Yass has given more than $6 million to two groups called Win PA and Keystone Renewal
PAC, focused on down-ballot races. Mr. Yass has also previously given money to a
group that in 2022 transferred $1.2 million to Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania,
which is leading a 2024 get-out-the-vote drive that could help Republicans up and
down the ticket.
Cliff
Maloney, the lead organizer, said they had raised $3 million to hire 120 staff members
to chase ballots. Mr. Maloney declined to comment on his financial supporters but
said, “Jeff Yass is a patriot.”
Oil
and Gas
Mr.
Trump began October with a fund-raising trip to Texas, with stops in energy-rich
Midland and Houston.
Among
the co-hosts on the Texas trip were Jeff Hildebrand, the billionaire founder of
Hilcorp Energy Company, and his wife. The couple have donated $1.2 million to Mr.
Trump and the Republican National Committee in 2024.
In
contrast to the crypto industry, Mr. Trump has for a long time been aligned with
much of the oil, gas and energy industry. He has derided climate change as a “hoax,”
and since 2016, Mr. Trump has aggressively opposed Democrats’ environmental regulations,
promoting a deregulatory agenda as president that delighted many fossil fuel executives.
Mr.
Trump has received millions of dollars in donations from top energy executives,
including $10 million across two pro-Trump super PACs from Kelcy
Warren, the chief executive of Energy Transfer. Joseph Craft III, who leads a major
coal company, and his wife, Kelly, a former Trump ambassador, have given nearly
$3 million to Mr. Trump, the party and a super PAC.
One
evening in April, Mr. Trump hosted an “energy round table” at Mar-a-Lago of industry
executives and lobbyists, including the oil billionaire Harold Hamm, executives
from major companies like Exxon Mobil and a representative from the industry lobby
group, the American Petroleum Institute.
At
the dinner, Mr. Trump repeated his public pledge to eliminate new Biden administration
climate rules designed to speed up the transition to electric vehicles. And he told
the executives that as president he would open up more public lands for oil and
gas exploration.
He
also made an audacious request. The oil and gas industries would do so well under
a Trump president that the people in the room should donate $1 billion to his presidential
campaign.
“It’s
enticement and coercion — the carrot and the stick,” said Walter Shaub, a former
director of the United States Office of Government Ethics. “He has been making clear
through his actions that any industries that support him stand to be rewarded and
any that oppose him stand to be punished.”