Sara Dorn Forbes Staff
President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign targeted billionaires cozying up to former President Donald Trump for their previous suggestions to modify Social Security—a hot-button issue in the 2024 campaign as Trump has made contradicting statements about his plans for entitlement programs.
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KEY FACTS
The Biden campaign in a statement to Forbes said “Trump’s billionaire donors are just like him: hellbent on gutting Social Security,” accusing them of wanting to cut “seniors’ earned benefits while lining their own pockets with tax giveaways to the wealthy.”
The campaign specifically called out hedge fund founder John Paulson, who is hosting a fundraiser for Trump on Saturday in Palm Beach, for making the argument for “switching to a defined contribution from defined benefit” Social Security model during a 2018 discussion at New York University, while discussing another attendee’s proposal.
The campaign also pointed to a proposal from Susquehanna International Group co-founder Jeff Yass calling for an amendment to the Federal Insurance Contributions Act to give workers the option to shift 10% of their paycheck away from Social Security and into a personal stock investment fund, he wrote in a 2019 Wall Street Journal op-ed co-authored with Stephen Moore, former senior economic adviser for Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Yass recently met with Trump and is expected to soon make a significant donation toward his candidacy, an anonymous campaign source told the New York Times.
Biden and his campaign have repeatedly accused Trump of wanting to cut Social Security and Medicare after Trump said during a CNBC interview last month “there is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting,” adding he would tamp down on “the theft and the bad management of entitlements.”
Trump, who has a history of contradictory statements and policies surrounding entitlement programs, walked back the comments in the wake of the criticism, telling Breitbart days later he “will never do anything that will hurt or jeopardize Social Security or Medicare.”
CHIEF CRITIC
“The Biden campaign is just mad they got outplayed at their own game. The fact is President Trump and the America First movement is buoyed by Americans from all backgrounds to stop Crooked Joe Biden’s disastrous policies,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement in response to the attack.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR
Paulson is hosting a fundraiser for Trump with tickets up to $815,000 per person, featuring Trump’s former Republican primary opponents Sen. Tim Scott, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. “Co-hosts” include New York billionaire John Catsimatidis, aerospace executive Robert Bigelow and Las Vegas hotel chain billionaire Steve Wynn. The fundraiser—which has already raised $43 million, according to multiple reports—would support Trump’s campaign apparatus, the Trump 47 Committee.
KEY BACKGROUND
Saturday’s fundraiser comes as the Biden campaign is working with a cash advantage over Trump, nearly doubling his fundraising numbers in February, while Trump and his affiliated entities face a money crunch tied to his legal fees. Trump, however, appears to be making inroads among big-monied donors after clinching the GOP nomination on March 12. Oracle’s Larry Ellison is in talks to potentially write a major check to Trump’s campaign, after backing both Scott and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in the primary, the Washington Post reported. Citadel hedge fund founder and former Haley supporter Ken Griffin and JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, who also urged Democrats to vote for Haley as an alternative to Trump, have also spoken highly of the former president in recent weeks. The Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee, which effectively merged after Trump secured the nomination, also announced earlier this week they raised a combined $65.6 million in March, entering April with $93.1 million in cash on hand, up from the $53.2 million they ended February with.
FORBES VALUATION
We estimate Yass is worth $27.6 billion and Paulson is worth $3.5 billion.
