- Reid Hoffman said there’s a “greater than 50% chance” he’ll receive retaliation for backing Kamala Harris.
- The LinkedIn cofounder made the remarks on an episode of “The Diary of a CEO” podcast.
- Hoffman was one of the vice president’s most prominent Silicon Valley business supporters.
Reid Hoffman, the billionaire LinkedIn co-founder and outspoken Democrat, said he thinks it’s likely that he will face retaliation from President-elect Donald Trump for supporting Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign.
“I think that there’s a greater than 50% chance that there will be repercussions from a misdirection and corruption of the institutions of state to respond to my having tried to help Harris get elected,” Hoffman said on an episode of “The Diary of a CEO” podcast that aired on Monday.
Hoffman said that he hopes any retaliation from Trump would be fairly tame, naming possibilities like IRS audits or phone calls from the incoming president trying to hurt his business prospects.
“It could get much worse, but I don’t really want to speculate on it because I don’t want to give anybody any ideas,” he said.
Any repercussions would, he added, be “undemocratic and un-American.”
Regardless, Hoffman said that he has no plans to leave the United States.
Nearly 90 top business executives — including Hoffman — signed a letter endorsing Harris’ candidacy ahead of the general election, touting her plan to expand tax deductions for small businesses. The letter said that Harris’ White House bid was “the best way to support the continued strength, security, and reliability of our democracy and economy.”
Hoffman was also part of a cohort of business leaders who put together an initiative to get right-leaning swing voters onboard with Harris’ candidacy by stressing her pro-business stances.
On the podcast, Hoffman said he’d spoken to fellow billionaires during the campaign who applauded his political actions but declined to partake themselves for fear of getting “penalized” if Trump won.
“Part of the reason why I think less people were public about it this cycle was because President Trump was threatening personal and political retaliation, and so you had to have a certain degree of courage to stand up — and courage in the public area,” he said.
Since winning a second term, Trump has put several Silicon Valley business leaders in prominent roles, from Department of Government Efficiency co-head Elon Musk to newly minted AI and crypto czar David Sacks.
Despite his dislike for Trump and many of his policies, Hoffman said that some of the president-elect’s deregulation efforts could broadly benefit entrepreneurs.
“I think they’re going to reduce regulation across the board for all entrepreneurs, so I think that’s helpful for entrepreneurship,” he said.
Representatives for Hoffman and Trump did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.
