Bulwark Takes - Tim Miller: Democratic Donors Are Afraid of Trump. I’m Sick of It.

Episode Date: February 18, 2025

Tim Miller appeared on MSNBC's The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle and Teddy Schleifer to discuss Democratic donors who are afraid of Trump seeking retribution against them.

Hey, y'all, I just got off the 11th hour with Stephanie Ruhle, and I was talking to two of the people that might know the Democratic or center left big donor class better than anybody out there, Steph herself and my buddy Teddy Schleifer, who is over at the New York Times now. And, you know, they were asking me about something that they've been both hearing, which is that a lot of the big Democratic donors are afraid and have some and are worried that Trump will come after them. And I got to tell you, I'm just fucking sick of this. I'm so sick of hearing that. All right. I mean, there's plenty of reasons to rationalize inaction out there. But let's be serious about the people who are really in threat. So anyway, we get into the conversation. I hope you guys enjoy this little bit with me and Teddy and Steph. Newly elected Democratic National Committee chair Ken Martin has an uphill battle ahead of him. The party has yet to present a show of force in the early days of the second Trump administration.

And some are concerned that they are missing the moment to remake the party after their loss in 2024. Joining me now to discuss Teddy Schleifer with The New York Times. He covers campaign finance and how billionaires influence American politics here's the answer in a big big way and tim miller host of the bulwark podcast and the former communications director for republican jeb bush tim martin is kicking off his party leadership with this multi-state tour to get the dnc out of dc what do you think about it hey steph well in part I think it's good. I think that the instinct to go into. Well, I mean, I think the instinct to go into communities is good. Right. And to be outside of D.C., that's positive. The local press events to find real people that are being impacted by the Trump administration.

That instinct is good. The thing is, it's just not enough. Right. When you go through all those headlines that you went through and even when you hear the new chairman speak himself like what people are yearning for is is volume is is leadership is intensity and while like i understand the strategy of saying oh we should go to the green bay media market and do something there like they need to be everywhere all the time all at at once. And like Elon and Trump are everywhere. And I understand it's hard to compete with somebody that has his own media platform and someone who's the president, but they got to at least try. And I think that the effort to date has not kind of been up to the challenge. Teddy, I want to talk about your

reporting that liberal donors are pulling donations for two reasons. Because of lack of strategy thus far from Democrats, but more importantly, because of fear of retribution from Trump. What can you tell us? Yeah, I mean, this came up in almost every conversation we had for that piece. There is a deep concern that Donald Trump will retaliate. And I mean, to be frank, Trump has said he will retaliate. He said during the campaign that he believed, you know, he would go after the deep state and their enemies, including, you know, not just reporters, but also liberal donors.

And, you know, anybody who spent any money to go to help kind of go after Trump during the first term. And these donors take him seriously. You know, we know that there are wealthy people who are moving their foundations from Democratic from Republican states to Democratic states, moving assets overseas. Some people have even moved overseas themselves. So from all of our conversations, there's been a chilling effect. I think lots of wealthy people are scared. And that contributes to kind of a lack of public leadership that we're seeing right now, because even if Trump doesn't do anything and who knows if he actually will, this this this doubt has been introduced where every move that a liberal billionaire takes today could be scrutinized more so than it would be under a President Romney or President Cruz.

And Trump is winning to that extent because he has kind of wealthy givers fearful. Tim, seems like a fair fear. I get not really. I'm sorry. If you're a rich enough person to be able to spend six, seven figures on political campaigns, you have a big moat around you. And you should really, frankly, be using your resources and your platform to help people that are an actual threat from this administration. People working for USAID are losing their jobs.

Immigrants, people that are here, even those who are here illegally or who have family members who are here illegally are under threat. We could just go down the whole list of all the people that are actually in threat from the Trump administration right now. It's not a bunch of rich donors. And I do think that there's been this kind of concern that Trump will go after people as being used as an excuse for people to not actually put themselves on the line and speak out and speak clearly about the threats that this administration is posing. And I'm frankly kind of tired of hearing it. I think that there are a lot of people higher up on the list of threats than rich Democratic donors.

Tim, it's funny that you say this, because I spent the last four days in San Francisco with a whole lot of wealthy people. And I kind of heard the same thing or things like, well, listen, I'm not crazy about Elon Musk, but the government is too fat. Let's just see what happens. Why is it that so many folks right now are in this space of let's see what happens. If you're super wealthy, nothing is going to happen to hurt you. But if you are the slightest bit vulnerable or marginalized, this could be devastating for you. Yeah, I don't know how much more people need to see. You know, they've come into this administration and acts completely illiberally. I mean, there have been multiple who would have had to quit at the Department of Justice, federal prosecutors.

I mean, like, honestly, had the Danielle Sassoon letter happened during any other presidency besides Trump, we would be having impeachment conversations already about why a president or his officials are bullying, you know, federal prosecutors into being part of a quid pro quo that just by the letter of the law, just look at the Danielle Sas sassoon letter is illegal so i you know i don't know how much more you need to see he's been erratic uh we're are we're meeting with russia uh tomorrow in saudi arabia and uh our democratic ally in ukraine isn't invited to be at the table i just think across a bunch of verticals like we we've seen that this is going to be a lawless administration.

And I think that folks should decide that it's time to speak out about it. And we'd be A-OK if Ukraine signed over their natural resources and minerals to us. There's that one too. Teddy, this donor class, these Democratic donors, what would they like to see from Democrats right now? Because let's be honest, it's been just barely a month since Donald Trump is in office. And I know they're they're frustrated that Democrats don't have a unified message yet, but it is going to take a beat. Yeah, look, I mean, I don't think that anyone is expecting, you know, George Soros to be out there in the streets kind of leading leading the resistance here. But, you know, I think they want to see the same thing that, frankly, voters want to see. Right. They want to see, you know, a strong message. They want to see it delivered by a messenger.

They want to see it, you know, getting led on the target and sort of being, you know, focused on the right thing. I think we often talk about these people like they're kind of you know these are these strange alien creatures that they are human beings who respond to incentives and respond to a good speech uh or a good television hit or or whatever um i think what what candidates want to see is that they want to see these institutions that are part of the democratic party and part of the progressive movement kind of have enough money to last until you know 2026 2026 or 2028. Clearly, like, I mean, I think the words that come up a lot are people are checked out, these wealthy people. In fact, some of them are not watching the news or engaging in civic life in the way they were in 2017. So that's another way. They're just like regular people. And I think the challenge for the Democratic Party

right now is like, if you can't get George Soros excited about, you know, Ken Martin or about, you know, fighting Trump, then, you know, what do you say to a middle class voter in Milwaukee who is checked out as well? All right, gentlemen, thank you both so much.