JFK and LBJ had the Wise Men. FDR listened to his Brain Trust. Andrew Jackson relied on the Kitchen Cabinet.
President-elect Donald Trump is decidedly turning to the PayPal Mafia for advice and expertise as his cabinet takes shape. Some might even call it All the President’s (Tech) Men.
David Sacks, the White House’s lead adviser on artificial intelligence (AI) and cryptocurrency, is the latest former PayPal executive, to join the incoming administration in some capacity.
“David O. Sacks will be the ‘White House A.I. & Crypto Czar,'” Trump announced on his Truth Social platform. “He will work on a legal framework so the Crypto industry has the clarity it has been asking for, and can thrive in the U.S.”
Sacks is expected to champion deregulation of the crypto industry that Trump promised on the campaign trail.
“Sacks spent decades leading a variety of tech companies across the sector. This is someone who knows what it’s going to take to make America lead on innovation,” Satya Thallam, GOP strategist and senior vice president of government affairs at Americans for Responsible Innovation, said in an email. “His relationship with [Tesla Inc. CEO Elon] Musk also makes him a natural fit for Trump’s AI czar. He knows the AI community and has a direct line to the current innovators in the field, which is necessary to understanding the direction of this technology.”
Sacks’ classmate at Stanford University and fellow PayPal alum, Peter Thiel, is the conservative billionaire/tech mentor to Vice President-elect JD Vance.
The most well-known member of the digital mafia, Musk, contributed $250 million to Trump’s campaign, and has been joined at the hip with Trump since his election on Nov. 5.
Musk and conservative activist Vivek Ramaswamy have been tasked with slashing some $2 trillion from the federal budget as part of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency.
“Silicon Valley’s evolution has been significantly shaped by the PayPal cohort’s drive for disruptive innovation,” Medigram CEO Sherri Douville said in an email. “As they’re expected to move into public service roles, their experience in transforming financial systems could be valuable. We should expect an amplified deregulation agenda.”
About the only member of the group without a connection to Trump is LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, who remains a major contributor to the Democratic Party.
Two more bold-faced valley names, Oracle Corp. co-founder Larry Ellison and venture capital titan Marc Andreessen, have surfaced in recent reports as participants in the formation of policy at Trump’s Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago.
