Sam Bankman-Fried Wanted to Pay Donald Trump Not to Run for … – Vanity Fair

The idea of Donald Trump becoming president again is one that no doubt makes millions of people across America, to say nothing of those living abroad, feel like theyre going to shit their pants. (If you only recently got dropped on planet Earth and are wondering why, see: all the alleged law-breaking, the attempted coup-ing, and the threats to rule like a full-on authoritarian, to say nothing of the other assorted crazy.) Indeed, the day the ex-president announced he was officially kicking off a third run for the White House, he likely gave rise to countless fantasies involving a time machine, 2015, and convincing him that only suckers and losers run for president. Or, one in which Vladimir Putin called him up, said something like, Donald, these swamp people dont deserve us, lets run away to Siberia together, and that was the end of that. Or, fuck, maybe one where Trump suddenly found a passion for macram and decided then and there to devote the rest of his life to it. Whatever!

Of course, most people didnt believe there was any actual scenario in which Trump could have been stopped from running for president again. Though, according to a forthcoming biography of FTX cofounder Sam Bankman-Fried, one billionaire in particular very much did!

In an essay by Michael Lewis adapted from his book Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon, published in The Washington Post on Sunday, we learn that in 2022, SBF had a sit-down with Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, the subtext of which was protecting the world from Donald Trump, whom SBF viewed as an existential threat to humanity on par with another pandemic and climate change. And in order to stop said threat from destroying the world, SBF had a plan:

At that moment, Sam was planning to give $15 million to $30 million to McConnell to defeat the Trumpier candidates in the Senate races. On a separate front, he explained to me, as the plane descended into Washington, he was exploring the legality of paying Donald Trump himself not to run for president. His team had somehow created a back channel into the Trump operation and returned with the not terribly earth-shattering news that Donald Trump might indeed have his price: $5 billion. Or so Sam was told by his team.

Assuming this was, in fact, legala big assumption!it would have obviously been a brilliant plan, because it might have actually worked, given Trumps obsession with wealth. Hell, with another $5 billion to his name, he might have actually been able to stop lying about his net worth!

Of course, this did not happen in the end, which may or may not have had to do with a combination of Trump deciding he had to run for president in order to stay out of prison and SBF being charged with fraud and actually going to jail. But imagine how less stressful life would be if it had!

View post:

Sam Bankman-Fried Wanted to Pay Donald Trump Not to Run for ... - Vanity Fair