Tech C.E.O.s Held a Secret Meeting with Top Republicans to Stop Trump | Vanity Fair
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Billionaires, tech C.E.O.s, and G.O.P. leaders all converged to discuss the Republican front-runner.
The most powerful people in the technology sector, along with other billionaires and top Republicans, flew to a small island off the coast of Georgia last weekend to attend a secretive forum, where they discussed, among other things, how to keep current Republican front-runner Donald Trump from winning the party’s presidential nomination, the Huffington Post reports.
Among the cabal of tech C.E.O.s who met at the remote Sea Island Resort for the American Enterprise Institute’s annual World Forum were Apple C.E.O. Tim Cook, Tesla Motors and SpaceX C.E.O. Elon Musk, Napster C.E.O. Sean Parker, and Google co-founder Larry Page. Top Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senator Tom Cotton, and Karl Rove also attended the forum, as did billionaire G.O.P. donor Philip Anschutz and New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger.
Trump, the billionaire real estate developer who has won a plurality of delegates so far in the Republican presidential primary, threatening to lock up the nomination, was the main topic of conversation. “A specter was haunting the World Forum—the specter of Donald Trump,” Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol wrote in an e-mailed report from the forum. The religiously off-the-record event reportedly included a presentation about Trump from Rove, who shared focus-group findings that indicated Trump’s biggest weakness is that he can be erratic and that voters don’t consider him to be “presidential.” According to the Huffington Post, there was a lot of hand-wringing in the conversations about Trump; they focused on “how this happened, rather than how are we going to stop him,” one source said.
Trump wasn’t the only topic that had attendees squirming in their seats. Senator Cotton and Apple C.E.O. Tim Cook also had an uncomfortable debate over encryption. Apple is currently in a legal battle with the F.B.I. over an iPhone that belonged to one of the terrorists in last year’s San Bernardino attacks. “Cotton was pretty harsh on Cook,” one source told the Huffington Post, adding “everyone was a little uncomfortable about how hostile Cotton was.”
G.O.P. leaders and experts both at Sea Island and at a recent Republican Governors Association retreat in Park City have strategized about how to defeat Trump, either by beating him at the polls, or by denying him enough delegates to prevent a brokered convention, in which Republican delegates would be freed up to vote for another candidate. A presentation shared with The Washington Post by operatives from an anti-Trump super-PAC shows where some G.O.P. leaders see the front-runner’s vulnerabilities, though others think anti-Trump efforts are futile. Trump’s success hinges on one thing: a set of primaries in states including Ohio, Florida, and Illinois on March 15.
XJeff Bezos
It’s tough to think of anyone who had a better financial year than Jeff Bezos, until you look at his company, Amazon, whose stock soared 115 percent over the course of the year. Naturally, that translates to Bezos’s own net worth, which increased 105 percent, or nearly $30 billion, making him the billionaire whose piles of money grew faster than any other billionaire in 2015. If that is not enough to cap off Bezos’s year, his commercial space-flight company Blue Origin successfully launched and landed a rocket this fall, and, most important, he joined Twitter (where he subsequently threw subtle shade at fellow space pioneer Elon Musk). Here’s to hopefully more social-media feuding, rocket launches, and 11-figure increases in the year ahead.Thomas Peterffy
Hungarian-born pioneer of computerized stock trading Thomas Peterffy had one heck of a 2015. Peterffy, the chairman of electronic broker Interactive Brokers Group, saw his fortune rise more than 38 percent, or about $5 billion. Peterffy, who listed his 80-acre Greenwich, Connecticut, estate for $65 million this summer, has Interactive Brokers’ strong performance to thank for his second place ranking on this most illustrious list. The stock climbed more than 45 percent so far this year, which, if you own nearly 85 percent of the brokerage, as Peterffy does, means a nice chunk of change. Maybe this means he will add another Salvador DaliAlice in Wonderland statue to his office (he already has one on his desk, according to Bloomberg). He can certainly afford it.By Matthew Furman/Forbes Collection/Corbis Outline.Facebook Founders
As Facebook saw its stock rise close to 35 percent in 2015, so did the fortunes of two of the social network’s co-founders. Dustin Moskovitz and his former freshman year roommate at Harvard, Mark Zuckerberg, got a 35 percent and 33 percent increase to their net worths this year, respectively. That’s about $2.7 billion for the curly-haired Moskovitz, Facebook’s biggest individual shareholder behind Zuckerberg, and $11.4 billion for Zuck himself. Though the 31-year-olds are both billionaires many times over, all money is money appreciated, especially for Moskovitz, who left Facebook to start his own company, Asana, and Zuckerberg, new millennial dad to baby girl Max. It also means more money for the duo to donate, as Moskovitz has pledged to give away the bulk of his fortune, and Zuckerberg announced he would put 99 percent-worth of his Facebook shares into a charitable L.L.C. upon the birth of Max. Oh, to be 31, a college dropout, and a Facebook co-founder.Left, by Dirk Bruniecki/Laif/Redux; Right, by Kimberly White/Getty Images.Google Guys
It’s still good to be Google after all these years—2015 was a year in which the company restructured, renamed itself Alphabet, and rebranded with a new logo. All of that change was for good in the eyes of investors, as the stock has soared 44 percent so far this year. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the company’s co-founders and Alphabet’s C.E.O. and president, respectively, take the fourth and fifth spots on this list, with each seeing their net worths increase by about 32 percent (around $9.8 billion for both Page and Brin). Eric Schmidt, who came to Google in 2001 and was named Alphabet’s chairman this year, saw a 24.4 percent boost, or about $2 billion, placing him seventh on the list (just behind Jan Koum, below). You can Google that.
By Paul Sakuma/AP Images.Jan Koum
The 39-year-old WhatsApp co-founder and C.E.O. could be lumped in with the Facebook guys on this list, since his Facebook shares are responsible for his 26.6 percent bump this year—tacking on about $1.8 billion to his net worth. Koum, who sold WhatsApp to Facebook for $22 billion in cash and stock in 2014, has been riding the Facebook high this year. He also unloaded about $286 million worth of shares in November, after the social network’s stock hit a then all-time high. The Facebook magic was enough to knock Eric Schmidt away from his fellow Googlers on the list and nudge his way into sixth place.By Robyn Twomey/Redux.Micky Arison
If you thought no one would want to go on cruises after a series of high-profile norovirus outbreaks and ships sinking, tell that to Micky Arison, chairman of Carnival Cruise Line, the world’s largest cruise-line operator. The company’s stock has surged nearly 20 percent so far this year, thanks to strong earnings and positive 2016 outlook. Arison, who also owns the Miami Heat, saw his fortune increase 24.4 percent increase, bringing his total close to $2 billion.By Alyson Aliano/Redux.Mark Shoen
He may not have the name recognition that some of the other billionaires on this list enjoy, but Mark Shoen and his bank account don't mind. An owner of Amerco, the company that owns U-Haul, Shoen received a delivery of an extra $1.2 billion this year—a 24 percent increase—as Amerco's stock skyrocketed more than 38 percent. That's a package tied up with quite a pretty little bow. (There were no photos of him on file.)
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