100 Business Leaders Explain Why They Back Trump

Including PayPal founder Peter Thiel
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 17, 2016 2:46 PM CDT
100 Business Leaders Explain Why They Back Trump
In this Oct. 14, 2016 file photo, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Charlotte, NC.   (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci, File)

Some people might be backing off their support for Trump in the wake of the controversy surrounding his leaked 2005 comments about women, but not these 100 business leaders. In an open letter released by the Trump Organization, the business leaders—including PayPal founder Peter Thiel, who recently donated $1.25 million to Trump's campaign—explain that Trump's economic plan is, in their opinion, better than Hillary Clinton's, Fortune reports. The Trump plan "cuts taxes, stops trade cheating, reduces regulations, unleashes America’s powerful energy sector, and eliminates our growth-draining trade deficit," all while creating millions of jobs and trillions in additional income, they write. Clinton, on the other hand, "will raise taxes, continue to increase the already oppressive regulatory burden on both consumers and businesses, stifle efforts to make our nation energy independent, and negotiate more bad trade deals that ship our jobs and factories offshore." The full letter is available on Trump's official website.

The signers also include hedge fund manager Carl Icahn, New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, Home Depot co-founder and former CEO Bernie Marcus, former Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner and president Jamie McCourt, and David Perdue, former Reebok and Dollar General CEO. Not all of Trump's business world donors signed the letter; Fortune notes that Renaissance Technologies co-founder Robert Mercer, Colony Capital’s Tom Barrack, Cerebus Capital Management’s Stephen Feinberg, and BP Capital’s T. Boone Pickens are all missing. Earlier this month, a dozen business leaders wrote their own letter calling Trump bad for the economy because he's "too reckless," Fox Business Network reports; those signers included Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and the former Kellogg Company CEO. As for Thiel, New York looks at why he's donating to Trump now, theorizing that the move could be "a first-round investment" in the cable channel many think Trump will launch if he loses the election. (More Election 2016 stories.)

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