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Comment by 73kl4453dz | Hacker News Reader

What's even the point of being a billionaire if you're still scared of Trump?

Trump may be handed unprecedented [0] power, is quite openly and plainly motivated by retribution, has repeatedly threatened to use the power of the military and the state against his political enemies, and at least once has used his own media platform to call for the termination of the US constitution.

(Those are facts. Not political claims.)

Putting aside any broader assessments of his character, I think it is rational to be afraid of the consequences of being on the wrong side of such a person.

What is depressing is the number of people in positions of influence who do not feel like modelling the virtuous position of having fear of the consequences of doing what they believe to be the right thing but doing it anyway.

[0] I realise that in principle there is a precedent for him having this power because he had it before. But what any presidential candidate in 2024 now has is the opportunity to run an executive with the clear legal opinion that they are permanently immune from prosecution for most of their actions, and an implicit handbook on how to bury criminal acts in official communications that are covered by absolute immunity. This extended power has no precedent.

The Washington Post, of all papers, knows the answer: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Jamal_Khash...

Why is everyone in this thread pushing the idea that Bezos is scared of Trump? It seems more plausible to me he is scared of the DoJ breaking up Amazon under Harris.

Has anyone brought that up? In the current administration? In the campaign?

what happens behind closed doors is entirely different than what makes the papers. i am positive bezos has spoken to trump, and i am positive trump assured bezos of something that harris did not

A rational person would know that many past promises or reassurances offered by Donald Trump have proved to be empty, worthless and even costly to their recipients, as documented by countless legal actions.

If Bezos believes what Trump has told him behind closed doors, then his companies are in the control of a sucker, not just a coward.

legal action does not show reality, people can sue for nearly no reason at all, and people have large political and PR reasons to sue Trump for posturing reasons. we have very little idea what trump's track record is for making deals because the vast majority of it isn't public. to base your entire opinion of him based on tabloids and biased corporate news and pretend that literally nothing ever happens that isn't public is not going to give you a realistic picture. i am sure there are also dozens of high profile examples of deals that were public and went just fine.

obligatory trump is terrible is racist etc. not defending trump, just highlighting questionable logic

Because talking about how Trump is evil is more entertaining than talking about Harris

I think people are finally coming around to paying attention to “Putin’s a really great guy” and “imprisoning the enemy within” and realizing Trump’s not joking around about that.

Yes, and it seems to me equally likely that he likes Trump but is too cowardly to say so. I don't know why others are so certain he's scared of Trump, unless there's a piece of information I'm missing.

The hedonic treadmill comes for everyone. Even the billionaires want more.

No one is safe from a nation state that is weaponized against you.

Just look at what happened in Saudi Arabia and the billionaires there.

Because soon it’s very possible Trump will rally the military behind him and start imprisoning billionaires who dared to cross him. He’ll be the only “billionaire” with real muscle to imprison his enemies for life or even summary execution.

About half of American voters are behind Trump. More poor/less educated coming to him compare to past cycles. Why wouldn’t a billionaire scared of him?

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