Downward angle icon Downward angle icon. President Joe Biden. Saul Loeb via AFP/Getty Images Business leaders are reacting to President Joe Biden’s decision not to run for a second term, including Elon Musk, Mark Cuban, Brad Smith and David Sachs. Smith, the Microsoft executive, said Biden has “dedicated his life to public service.”
In another shocking turn of events in this year’s presidential election, Joe Biden dropped out of the race on Sunday and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democratic nomination.
Recently, many prominent business leaders and Silicon Valley investors, including Elon Musk, Bill Ackman, Marc Andreessen, and Ben Horowitz, have publicly voiced their support for Donald Trump.
Musk and Ackman voiced their support after the former president was shot in an assassination attempt, while A16z founders Andreessen and Horowitz called out Trump’s crypto and tax policies in a lengthy podcast.
Now that the race for the top spot has changed, how are business leaders reacting?
Elon Musk
Elon Musk. Antonio Masiello/Getty Images
Shortly after Biden announced his withdrawal, Musk posted on X: “I believe in an America that maximizes individual freedom and empowerment. This used to be the case with the Democrats, but now the pendulum has swung to the Republicans.”
“My smartest friends, including many lifelong Democrats in the San Francisco Bay Area, are excited about the Trump/Vance candidacy,” he added.
Musk, who praised himself and X during Biden’s announcement, said on July 13 that he “wholeheartedly” supports Donald Trump, joining a growing list of top Silicon Valley investors who have backed the former president.
Mark Cuban
Mark Cuban recently announced he will be leaving ABC’s “Shark Tank” after the next season. The billionaire is also reportedly considering selling his majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks. Borja B. Rojas/Getty Images
Cuban was one of the first business figures to react to Biden’s announcement, posting on X, “Father Time cannot be defeated.”
The entrepreneur previously said he continued to support Biden after his dismal performance in the debate in late June.
“Of the two candidates, I’d have no problem hiring one of them as a sales rep,” Cuban previously said of Trump in an X post. “He’s very good at making people feel at ease and quickly communicating what he’s trying to sell.”
David Sachs
Andrew Caballero Reynolds/Getty Images
Sachs, an entrepreneur who founded venture capital fund Craft Ventures, posted comments on X shortly after Biden’s announcement. “Biden says he will address the nation later this week,” he wrote. “Why not now? This was rushed. Pelosi wanted Biden out now.”
Sachs continued by posting to X: “First they said there was nothing wrong with Biden. Then they threatened to destroy him if he didn’t drop out of the race. And now they’re calling him a ‘hero’. How can you not be sick of people like this?”
In a third post, Sachs said Democratic leaders “believe in elections, not elections.”
Sachs, a one-time supporter of Democrat Hillary Clinton, helped organize a $12 million fundraising drive for Trump in June and donated $1 million to the Senate campaign of Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance.
Brad Smith
Microsoft President Brad Smith. Getty Images
Smith, who is president and vice chairman of Microsoft, posted on X that Biden has “dedicated his life to public service” and called Sunday’s announcement “another example of that dedication.”
“I want to thank him for all he has accomplished and his continued contributions leading up to Inauguration Day,” he continued. “Microsoft looks forward to working with his administration in the remaining months of his term.”
Smith recently testified before the House Homeland Security Committee about security missteps at Microsoft, which came under scrutiny on Friday after a flawed update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike disrupted services worldwide.
Reid Hoffman
Kimberly White/Getty Images
Hoffman, the LinkedIn co-founder and chairman, posted on X that Biden is “a leader who will act with America’s best interests in mind.”
“Not seeking reelection is one of the most selfless acts by a politician in modern American history,” he continued. “It’s the right thing to do for our country and the future of our democracy.”
Hoffman added that Harris is “the right person at the right time” and said Trump and Vance’s policies have “wreaked havoc on the American people.”
“Faced with the choice between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, I trust the American people will make the right decision for our country,” he wrote. “The Biden-Harris Administration has put our country in the right direction. Now is the time for us to come together. In the fight for democracy in November, I wholeheartedly support Kamala Harris and her candidacy for President of the United States.”
In January, Hoffman donated $2 million to Granite for America, the super PAC that led Biden’s secret ballot campaign in New Hampshire.
Reed Hastings
Reed Hastings. Philippe Hugen/AFP/Getty Images
“Democratic delegates need to pick the winners of battleground states,” Hastings, the Netflix co-founder and chairman, wrote on X.
Hastings was one of several major Democratic donors who called on Biden not to run again.
“Biden needs to step aside and let strong Democratic leadership defeat Trump and get us all safe and prosperous,” he previously told The New York Times.
Mark Zuckerberg
Drew Ungerer/Getty Images
In the thread, Zuckerberg posted a photo of the two of them rowing a boat, with the caption “A gentle row before the big week.”
Zuckerberg later suggested his post had nothing to do with Biden’s decision.
“It’s always important to check your messages before posting…” he wrote in a reply to the post.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Mehta’s CEO said the reaction to Trump’s shooting has been “incredible,” but he wasn’t endorsing Trump.
Zuckerberg also said that Facebook and Instagram would continue to limit the amount of political information shown in users’ feeds.
Vinod Khosla
Vinod Khosla. Stephen Ferdman/Getty Images
Khosla, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems and billionaire investor in OpenAI, wrote on X that Democrats should look for a “more moderate candidate” who can beat President Trump.
He said Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro “will be great to see America no longer being held hostage by MAGA extremists and DEI extremists.”
In response to comments supporting Trump, Khosla responded: “It’s hard for me to support someone who has no values, lies, cheats, rapes, degrades women and hates immigrants like me. He may cut my taxes and reduce regulations, but that’s no reason to accept the corruption of his personal values. Do I want a president who sets the climate back a decade in his first year in office? Do I want my children to model their values on him?”
Richard Branson
Sir Richard Branson Virgin
Branson, the businessman and co-founder of the Virgin Group, said on X that Biden’s choice was “a wise, principled decision by a wise, principled man, which will give the next generation the opportunity to move America and humanity forward.”
“Now is the time for the president to consider what is at stake and step aside from running for office again,” Branson wrote on Virgin’s website earlier this month, saying the president “still has much to contribute to the world.”
Andrew Yang
Andrew Yang
Yang, a businessman who sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, wrote on X that Biden had shown “great leadership” and called on the Democratic National Committee to “demonstrate equal leadership by having an open process to determine who the best candidate, Vance, is to face Trump in November.”
“The goal is simple: to win,” he added, and in another post said the way to win was to “elect a candidate who has a wider base of support and a greater chance of winning than Trump.”
Melinda French Gates
Christophe Haena/AP
French Gates, co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said at X that Biden “deserves tremendous gratitude for his decades of public service and for the effective leadership he has provided from the White House at a particularly critical time for the nation.”
French Gates praised Biden’s efforts to get the economy back on track, lead the U.S. through the pandemic and work toward equality and opportunity for all Americans. She also highlighted his work to advocate for women and girls.
“We already know what the Trump administration is like. We cannot put a new administration at risk,” she wrote.
French Gates formally endorsed Biden in June, marking his first time endorsing a presidential candidate.
Marc Benioff
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff Evan Agostini
On X, Salesforce CEO Benioff shared a link to a Time magazine cover story about Biden’s election withdrawal, along with an image of the magazine’s cover, showing Kamala Harris entering the frame as Joe Biden makes his exit.
Speaking on The X show last week, Benioff prayed for “President Trump’s full and speedy recovery” following the assassination attempt, adding, “May his body find healing, his mind find peace and his soul find rest. May he be blessed with strength and courage and a speedy return to good health. There is no place for political violence in our country.”
Aaron Levy
Box CEO Aaron Levie Wikipedia/Fortune Brainstorm TECH 2011
Levy, the CEO of cloud company Box, posted on X praising Biden’s “great leadership” and urging Democrats to seize the opportunity.
“Democrats have a clear opportunity to create good policies and stories that support technology, AI, science, immigration, and entrepreneurship,” he wrote on X.
Larry Summers
Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers speaks at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington, DC, April 16, 2015. Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images
Summers, the former Treasury secretary, wrote on X that he was once again focusing on Trump’s “rampant dishonesty, sedition and danger” following Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race.
“Partisanship aside, Donald Trump’s sharp and inappropriate comments today revealed he is unfit to lead America,” Summers wrote. “Defeating him is the most important election priority of my lifetime.”
