Six More Billionaires Donate To The Anti-Trump Lincoln Project

Six more billionaires recently donated to the Lincoln Project, a Republican-led super-PAC doing its best to defeat Donald Trump in November. 

The largest donor, supplying $1 million, was billionaire hedge fund manager Stephen Mandel Jr., founder of Lone Pine Capital, according to Federal Election Commission filings released Wednesday.

Other supporters include Hollywood billionaire David Geffen (who donated $100,000), Boston media magnate Amos Hostetter Jr. ($100,000) and Silicon Valley investors Michael Moritz ($50,000) and Chris Sacca ($10,000). Martha Karsh, who is married to private equity billionaire Bruce Karsh, gave $50,000.

This group of donors is following in the footsteps of Walmart heiress Christy Walton, who gave $20,000 to the Lincoln Project in January. Apparently pleased with her investment, she contributed another $10,000 in May. All of the donors except Walton have also contributed to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign or a super-PAC supporting the former vice president.

Although billionaires, like everyone else, can only give $5,600 per election cycle directly to the campaigns of presidential candidates, they can give unlimited sums to super-PACs, like the Lincoln Project. In total, the Lincoln Project has raised $18.7 million this year.

Those donations help fund things like political ads, which have managed to frustrate the president. In May, a Lincoln Project video called “Mourning in America,” which criticized Trump’s coronavirus response, prompted the president to go on a Twitter tirade. He called the Lincoln Project “a disgrace to Honest Abe.” and its leaders “a group of RINO Republicans who failed badly.”

The group’s leaders include Republican strategists Steve Schmidt and Rick Wilson, as well as lawyer George Conway, who is married to White House advisor Kellyanne Conway.

And they aren’t just targeting Trump. FEC filings show that the Lincoln Project has paid to run ads opposing his allies, including senators Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Joni Ernst of Iowa. It has also paid for ads supporting Joe Biden and Montana governor Steve Bullock, who is running for Senate in his state.