Billionaire fund hedge manager Bill Ackman, a longtime donor to Democratic candidates and organizations, first endorsed Congressman Dean Phillips for the Democratic presidential nomination in the 2024 presidential primaries. When Phillips dropped out, Ackman donated to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign. The day after the attempted assassination of GOP nominee Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania in July, Ackman endorsed Trump.
Ackman’s rightward drift was accelerated, according to a New York magazine article by what he characterized as his daughter’s “indoctrination” once she entered Harvard — also his alma mater — where he said “she became, like, an anti-capitalist. Like practically a Marxist.”
(Note: a similar apostasy by billionaire Elon Musk‘s transgender daughter is said to have influenced Musk’s rightward lurch — he is quoted as saying this child is “dead, killed by the woke mind virus.”)
Ackman has since helped lead an anti-DEI charge at Harvard, joining successful calls for the ouster of President Claudine Gay after her tone-deaf performance in Congressional hearings and challenging what he sees as the prevalence of anti-Semitism and the problems of free speech policing on campuses — positions that align snugly with MAGA priorities.
Now just a week after Trump’s return to the White House, Ackman wrote on X: “Other than the almighty, who has accomplished more in seven days than @POTUS Trump? To be fair, we have to keep in mind that Trump didn’t rest on the seventh day.”
Other than the almighty, who has accomplished more in seven days than @POTUS Trump?
— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) January 27, 2025
To be fair, we have to keep in mind that Trump didn’t rest on the seventh day.
Note: Ackman has come a long way around to his MAGA Trumpism. On January 6, 2021, Ackman wrote to Trump on X: “it is time for you to resign and apologize to all Americans.”
Is this you? pic.twitter.com/hQj1ehvA6Y
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) July 14, 2024
DNC delegate Christopher Hale, a 2020 “Democratic nominee for US Congress and Obama-Biden White House & campaign alum,” replied to Ackman’s Trump/God comparison with an AI image of Ackman on one knee in front of Trump. Hale wrote to Ackman: “Are you going to get on your knees next, Bill?”
Are you going to get on your knees next, Bill? pic.twitter.com/eHPt6GtFsG
— Christopher Hale (@chrisjollyhale) January 27, 2025
Note: Hale lost to incumbent Republican Rep. Scott DesJarlais, who was reportedly the first member of the House Freedom Caucus to endorse Trump when he first ran for president in 2016.
Though his donations were previously directed largely toward Democrats, Ackman’s position seems to have always leaned more toward a kind of practical, pragmatic centrism that suits a business mogul trained in looking for empirical opportunities, not ideological restrictions.
Supporting Dean Phillips was clearly a jab at the Democratic Party status quo. As seen below, Ackman revealed in April that he voted for Trump in 2016, too.
Yes. I voted for @realDonaldTrump in 2016.
— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) April 25, 2024
