The leftist billionaire and Democratic megadonor Reid Hoffman is reportedly looking to leave the United States after Donald Trump’s landslide victory.
Hoffman, who made his billions as the founder of the professional networking website LinkedIn, is said to fear retaliation from the incoming Trump administration and is now weighing a move overseas.
The New York Times reported:
In the weeks after Election Day, one of the biggest donors in the Democratic Party, the LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, has considered what would once have been unthinkable for a billionaire who often talks about his patriotism. Leaving the United States.
Mr. Hoffman, who has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on politics over the last few years, has told friends and allies that he is weighing a move overseas, according to three people with knowledge of the talks who insisted on anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Mr. Hoffman, who declined to comment through a spokeswoman, has helped pay for some of the most aggressive private litigation against Donald J. Trump, and he is worried about retribution from a president who has promised to go after his political opponents, including major Democratic donors.
While Mr. Hoffman’s reaction is dramatic — and it’s unclear how much moving abroad would protect him or his assets from Mr. Trump’s wrath — he is hardly alone in a liberal big-money world still stunned by Vice President Kamala Harris’s defeat.