Economist Paul Krugman: How 'billionaire tech bros' pushed Trump to nominate Vance

30 July 2024

Once a self-described Never Trumper who slammed Donald Trump's 2016 campaign as "cultural heroin," Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) is now a full-fledged MAGA Republican who combines populism and working-class themes with extreme social conservatism.

Trump's decision to make Vance his running mate has brought a renewed focus on comments the "Hillbilly Elegy" author made in 2021 and 2022, when he angrily railed against "childless cat ladies" and "childless Democrats." Vance called for the U.S. tax code to "punish" Americans who don't have biological children, and he even described Americans who don't have kids as "deranged" and "psychotic."

Far-right Christian nationalists were happy to see Trump choose Vance as his running mate. But according to liberal economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, another group that pushed for the Vance nomination was "tech billionaires."

"So how did this guy end up as the Republican vice-presidential nominee?" Krugman writes in his July 29 column. "Who's his constituency? Despite the 'Handmaid's Tale' vibe of his views on women and reproductive rights, he doesn't have deep roots in the Religious Right. And he's a late adopter of the MAGA worldview, having once fretted that Donald Trump could wind up being 'America’s Hitler.'"

The economist continues, "Vance's ascent has, to a significant degree, been powered by a small group of technology billionaires, with Peter Thiel, who poured millions into Vance's 2022 Senate race, at the center."

Krugman notes that some "right-wing techies," including Thiel and X CEO Elon Musk, have "descended into conspiracism" and "made their peace with Trump." And Vance, Krugman argues, is "an avatar, not of hillbillies — as the title of his memoir would have you believe — but of tech bros."

Krugman explains, "Tech-bro support for Trump and Vance also seems to have a lot to do with one specific issue: cryptocurrency…. The backing of tech billionaires is a key reason we ended up with Vance as a vice-presidential contender. He pitches himself as a champion of working-class America. But behind his cynical culture-warring — behind his professed allegiance to Everyman totems like Mountain Dew — he's closely tied to a tech-sector ethos that's anything but populist."

Paul Krugman's full New York Times column is available at this link (subscription required).

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