Paul Graham, the man behind famed startup accelerator Y Combinator, has urged American voters to reject Donald Trump at the ballot box next week.<\/p>\n
The former president appears to have the momentum going into Tuesday, with betting markets like\u00a0Polymarket<\/a>\u00a0and Kalshi predicting a crushing electoral college victory thanks to a possible sweep of U.S. battleground states. Shares in Trump Media and Technology Group have\u00a0returned<\/a>\u00a0to their\u00a0March 2024 highs<\/a>\u00a0as meme stock traders price in an impending defeat of opponent Kamala Harris.\u00a0<\/p>\n Arguing on Tuesday this contest ultimately came down to character, Graham claimed Trump was manifestly unsuited to serve as the president and commander-in-chief\u2014and not just because of his attempt to overturn the 2020 vote on Jan. 6, 2021. In his view, Trump proved time and again while in office that he didn\u2019t understand what it takes to manage the highest office in the land.<\/p>\n \u201cHe ran the White House like a mob boss, choosing subordinates for loyalty rather than ability. No one knows that better than the people who worked for him,\u201d\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0Graham, who recently elicited a storm of debate over his essay praising companies that operate in \u201cfounder mode<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n Former administration advisors like\u00a0John Kelly<\/a>, Trump\u2019s longest-serving chief of staff, and\u00a0Mark Milley<\/a>, former chairman of the joint chiefs, have both denounced the real estate mogul as the textbook definition of a fascist.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Mark Esper, defense secretary under Trump, deemed him \u201cunfit for office<\/a>\u201d while the latter\u2019s attorney general, Bill Barr, called his ex-boss a \u201cconsummate narcissist<\/a>\u201d who repeatedly put his own interests over those of the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n If you haven’t decided yet who to vote for, here’s why I think you should vote for Harris. pic.twitter.com\/ebBMbs1c7r<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Paul Graham (@paulg) October 29, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cAlmost half the cabinet-level appointees from his previous administration have refused to endorse him,\u201d Graham added. \u201cThey\u2019re warning us what he\u2019s like.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump won\u2019t likely be all that bothered by someone like Graham, since he has gained the very\u00a0vocal support<\/a>\u00a0of tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, the wealthiest tycoon on earth.<\/p>\n The Tesla<\/a> CEO has played a key role in the race in terms of organizing<\/a> voter mobilization<\/a>, financing his campaign,\u00a0as well as\u00a0drafting policy proposals<\/a>. A\u00a0Wall Street Journal<\/em>\u00a0investigation even found that he\u2019s feeding social media users on X<\/a> content designed to\u00a0rally support<\/a>\u00a0for Trump\u2026whether they like it or not.<\/p>\n Silicon Valley is playing easily its most visible role yet in an election, and in many ways has been more prominent than the usual Hollywood A-list celebrities who used to factor more heavily into a campaign\u2019s PR strategy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n A lot of attention has been focused on the so-called \u201cPayPal mafia<\/a>\u201d \u2014 Musk, David Sacks and Peter Thiel \u2014 who all spent formative years in\u00a0Apartheid-era South Africa<\/a>\u00a0before ending up working together at the digital payments startup over 20 years ago. Trump running mate JD Vance once worked for Thiel<\/a> before entering politics.<\/p>\n But other luminaries from the tech startup scene have also thrown their weight behind Trump, including venture capitalist\u00a0Marc Andreessen<\/a>. He fears the Democrats are beholden to Big Tech companies less keen on driving innovation and more interested in squashing it to avoid being disrupted themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n Graham\u2014whose Y Combinator helped grow a host of successful startups including AirBnB, Coinbase<\/a> and Stripe\u2014believes Trump disqualified himself entirely by attempting to bully Mike Pence into\u00a0abusing his ceremonial function<\/a>\u00a0to overturn the vote during its certification on Jan. 6.<\/p>\n When Pence refused to go along with the plan, an angry mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, occupying the offices and\u00a0even making off with the Speaker\u2019s lectern<\/a>\u00a0in what the ex-President recently characterized as a \u201cday of love<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cTrying to remain in power after losing an election is banana republic stuff,\u201d Graham continued, arguing that conceding gracefully is a prerequisite of a healthy, functioning democracy.\u00a0<\/p>\n The YC co-founder has now staked out the middle ground, calling himself a moderate and recommending others back Kamala Harris.\u00a0<\/p>\n Yet his support could best be described as lukewarm, with Harris merely preferable to the only other alternative. <\/p>\n \u201cHarris is a typical politician. But Trump is a crook,\u201d Graham wrote in conclusion. \u201cYou can\u2019t have that sort of person as president.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\nHalf of Trump\u2019s cabinet appointees disavow their former boss<\/h2>\n
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Jan. 6 Capitol riot<\/h2>\n
\u2018Trump is a crook\u2019<\/h2>\n
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