Sam Bankman-Fried, Crypto-Republican?
He was lauded for his major donations to Democrats, but now he says he was secretly giving to Republicans in roughly equal measure.
Sam Bankman-Fried tried to warn us.
“Everyone should always be skeptical of things like this. Right?” the then–cryptocurrency star told NBC News’s Chuck Todd in a September interview about his generous political donations, which he framed as not self-interested. Unlike much of his advice about money, this suggestion was wise.
[Derek Thompson: My crypto confession]
Bankman-Fried became prominent in political circles for his donations to liberal causes, including nearly $37 million to Democrats and progressive groups in the 2022 cycle. Even more notable, he vowed to spend in the 2024 election cycle, in part to defeat Donald Trump if necessary. He was a high-profile acolyte of the , which overlaps heavily with the technocratic left.
