• Reid Hoffman said there's a "greater than 50% chance" he'll receive retaliation for backing Kamala Harris.
• The LinkedIn cofounder made the remarks on an episode of "The Diary of a CEO" podcast.
• Hoffman was one of the vice president's most prominent Silicon Valley business supporters.

Reid Hoffman, the billionaire LinkedIn co-founder and outspoken Democrat, said he thinks it's likely that he will face retaliation from President-elect Donald Trump for supporting Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign.

"I think that there's a greater than 50% chance that there will be repercussions from a misdirection and corruption of the institutions of state to respond to my having tried to help Harris get elected," Hoffman said on an episode of "The Diary of a CEO" podcast that aired on Monday.

Hoffman said that he hopes any retaliation from Trump would be fairly tame, naming possibilities like IRS audits or phone calls from the incoming president trying to hurt his business prospects.

"It could get much worse, but I don't really want to speculate on it because I don't want to give anybody any ideas," he said.

Any repercussions would, he added, be "undemocratic and un-American."

Regardless, Hoffman said that he has no plans to leave the United States.

Nearly 90 top business executives — including Hoffman — signed a letter endorsing Harris' candidacy ahead of the general election, touting her plan to expand tax deductions for small businesses. The letter said that Harris' White House bid was "the best way to support the continued strength, security, and reliability of our democracy and economy."

Hoffman was also part of a cohort of business leaders who put together an initiative to get right-leaning swing voters onboard with Harris' candidacy by stressing her pro-business stances.

On the podcast, Hoffman said he'd spoken to fellow billionaires during the campaign who applauded his political actions but declined to partake themselves for fear of getting "penalized" if Trump won.

"Part of the reason why I think less people were public about it this cycle was because President Trump was threatening personal and political retaliation, and so you had to have a certain degree of courage to stand up — and courage in the public area," he said.

Since winning a second term, Trump has put several Silicon Valley business leaders in prominent roles, from Department of Government Efficiency co-head Elon Musk to newly minted AI and crypto czar David Sacks.

Despite his dislike for Trump and many of his policies, Hoffman said that some of the president-elect's deregulation efforts could broadly benefit entrepreneurs.

"I think they're going to reduce regulation across the board for all entrepreneurs, so I think that's helpful for entrepreneurship," he said.

Representatives for Hoffman and Trump did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

• Reid Hoffman said he'd faced threats after Elon Musk fueled a baseless conspiracy theory about him.
• Musk has amplified claims that the LinkedIn cofounder was a client of Jeffrey Epstein.
• Hoffman said he regretted his past association with Epstein and had hired security after threats.

Reid Hoffman, a cofounder of LinkedIn, said he had received threats of violence — and had to hire security — since Elon Musk fueled a baseless conspiracy theory about him.

Musk, the Tesla CEO who worked with Hoffman at PayPal, replied earlier this month to an X post in which a user implied Hoffman had visited the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's private island.

He replied with the "100" emoji to a post saying: "This guy is TERRIFIED about Trump releasing the Epstein Client list after all his visits to Epstein Island."

Musk also made the claim during an October interview with the former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson, in which he said Hoffman was among the "billionaires behind Kamala" who were "terrified" by the prospect of Epstein's client list being made public.

Speaking with the British newspaper The Sunday Times, Hoffman said Musk had developed a "conviction with no evidence" that he had a close relationship with Epstein.

"Elon's defamation makes me angry and sad," he said. "Angry because it is an ugly assault. Sad because it comes from someone whose entrepreneurial achievements I continue to admire."

He added that he didn't want to "dignify" the threats he had received by sharing any details but said, "I've hired security staff as a result."

After Epstein's suicide in jail in 2019, Hoffman apologized for inviting him to a dinner party in 2015 with other tech tycoons — including Musk, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Palantir's cofounder Peter Thiel — while fundraising for MIT's renowned Media Lab.

Hoffman said he was told Epstein's involvement in raising donations had been vetted and approved by MIT. But he later wrote in an email to Axios that he regretted not conducting his own research into Epstein, who died while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.

"My last interaction with Epstein was in 2015," Hoffman said in the email. "Still, by agreeing to participate in any fundraising activity where Epstein was present, I helped to repair his reputation and perpetuate injustice. For this, I am deeply regretful."

He told The Sunday Times that he "went to no Epstein parties" and that he "didn't even know who he was."

Hoffman is a major Democratic donor who used X to voice his support for Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential election. "My message for American voters and Russian bots: don't vote for the guy too busy selling you a scamcoin," he wrote in a post on X on Election Day. Donald Trump, then the Republican presidential nominee, launched his own crypto coin, World Liberty Financial's wlfi, in October.

Musk has become a close ally of Trump, having been tasked with leading a new advisory committee, the Department of Government Efficiency, alongside the pharmaceutical entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.

Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

• Matthew Hiller sells stickers on Etsy for Tesla owners embarrassed by Elon Musk's politics.
• Musk's vocal support for Donald Trump has boosted sales, he told The New York Times.
• MadPufferStickers is a side hustle for the Waikiki Aquarium worker.

Some Tesla owners are embarrassed by Elon Musk's very public support for Donald Trump — and one Etsy seller has found a way to cash in.

Matthew Hiller works in the gift shop of Waikiki Aquarium in Honolulu but also has a side hustle in the form of Mad Puffer Stickers that calls itself "Etsy's #1 Shop For Tesla Drivers!"

Some of the stickers and magnets available on his Etsy store have slogans such as "I Bought This Before We Knew Elon Was Crazy" in all-capital letters, and another that reads: "Anti Elon Tesla Club."

The latter item measures four inches by five inches, costs $339.80 and was bought by 13 people in the past 24 hours as of Thursday. It's suitable for the Tesla Model X, Y, 3 and Cybertruck.

Hiller told The New York Times he used to sell between five and 10 a day, but interest jumped significantly after Musk ramped up his support for Trump ahead of the election. He said he's now sold about 18,000 stickers to buyers in 30 countries.

Hiller had once considered buying a Tesla. Following Musk's takeover of Twitter, now X, he told the Times of his concern about what he called misinformation on the social media platform.

"So I'm like, there's no way I'm buying a Tesla: I don't want to give this guy a penny," he said.

That led Hiller to think some Telsa owners would not "want to endorse anything this guy stands for," and inspired him to add the "I Bought This Before We Knew Elon Was Crazy" sticker. One buyer of that item commented: "Love the car ... can't deal with Musk."

It sits alongside more lighthearted items on Mad Puffer Stickers such as "Don't Talk To Me, I'm a Fishtrovert," and "Eighters Gonna Eight" with an image of an octopus.

Business Insider reported in November that seven current and would-be Tesla owners said they were actively planning or considering selling their vehicles or Tesla shares, or that they were done buying the brand after years of believing in Musk and his EV maker.

Hiller did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.

• President Biden touted his economic record during a Tuesday speech at the Brookings Institute.
• Biden suggested that he should've had his name printed on the 2021 stimulus checks, similar to Trump in 2020.
• Trump won a second presidential term in November with a heavy economic message for voters.

President Joe Biden during a Tuesday speech said that it was "stupid" of him to have not signed COVID-19 stimulus checks that went out as part of the American Rescue Plan, contrasting himself with President-elect Donald Trump.

While speaking at the Brookings Institute, Biden touted the effects of the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, which Congress passed in 2021, as a major economic accomplishment of his administration. But the president also reflected on the actions of Trump, his predecessor and soon-to-be successor.

"I also learned something from Donald Trump — he signed checks for people … and I didn't," he said. "Stupid."

In March 2020, Congress passed the CARES Act, a $2.2 trillion bill signed into law by Trump at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic that provided $1,200 relief checks to millions of Americans. Trump's name, controversially, was added to the relief checks by his administration.

This year, many Americans, who yearned for the pre-Covid economic conditions earlier in Trump's first term, chose Trump at the ballot box over Vice President Kamala Harris.

Biden from the earliest days of his administration sought to tackle some of the biggest pandemic-era economic issues.

The American Rescue Plan provided $1,400 checks to most Americans.

But inflation dogged the Biden administration's economic message, and the president was unable to articulate a convincing defense of his policies ahead of the 2024 election. His standing, coupled with concerns over his advanced age, led him to step aside as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee in July.

Harris assumed the mantle as the Democratic standard-bearer, but she had to run a 107-day campaign and was unable to overcome Trump's advantage on the economy among a broad swath of voters.

• Donald Trump successfully used podcasts to expand his reach during the 2024 presidential campaign.
• On Election day, Trump ended up boosting his support among men overall compared to 2020.
• A variety of podcast hosts are set to have a substantial level of influence in Trump's second term.

President-elect Donald Trump's love for the media is well-known — just look at how much Trump's early picks resemble a Fox News greenroom.

The president-elect made significant efforts during his campaign to get his message in front of podcasters and influencers. Now that he's set to return to power, these commentators will play a major role in setting and pushing his agenda. Or they'll just stream from the White House.

If Donald Trump Jr., who hosts his own podcast, gets his wish they might even be seated somewhere in the White House briefing room.

'The Joe Rogan Experience'

The UFC commentator and comedian Joe Rogan has become one of the biggest names in the podcast world. Rogan's persona and massive following (14.5 million followers on Spotify and nearly 19 million subscribers on YouTube) have given him the sort of platform that continues to attract a range of high-profile guests.

Trump's appearance on Rogan's podcast in October allowed him to reach a critical audience — which heavily skews male — ahead of an election where the president-elect boosted his performance with men compared to 2020. Rogan's reach is so substantial that Trump took a few hours off the campaign trail to travel to Austin, Texas, to sit in the studio with the podcast host.

Rogan, shortly before the election, endorsed Trump's candidacy, calling him "the biggest there is."

Many Democrats pushed for Vice President Kamala Harris to appear on the program before the election, but scheduling during the frenetic last weeks of the race precluded her from traveling to Austin to do so, according to a campaign statement at the time.

"My sincere wish is to just have a nice conversation and get to know her as a human being," Rogan said in October.

'Bannon's War Room'

One of the more seasoned podcasters in Trump's orbit, former White House strategist Steve Bannon, started his program during Trump's first impeachment. Trump has said he listens to "Bannon's War Room."

Bannon used the program to foment backlash to then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California. And Kash Patel, Trump's pick to lead the FBI, has made countless appearances on the show.

Former White House Trade Council director Peter Navarro, set to return to Trump's second administration, was among a handful of commentators who kept Bannon's show going while he was in prison. Like Navarro, Bannon was sentenced for his defiance of a subpoena from the House January 6 committee.

'Triggered with Don Jr.'

Donald Trump Jr., the president-elect's eldest son, has confirmed he won't be in the incoming administration. But he remains a key voice in his father's ear.

Trump Jr. pushes his message in multiple forms, including on his podcast, "Triggered With Don Jr.," which he has hosted for almost a year. He's frequently hosted some of Trump's congressional allies, along with top aides like Stephen Miller, who will return to the White House.

In a recent episode, Trump Jr. teased how the president-elect's transition team is eyeing ways to bring conservative podcasters into the White House briefing room.

'This Past Weekend with Theo Von'

In August, the comedian Theo Von hosted Trump on his podcast, "This Past Weekend with Theo Von." On the program, Von spoke openly with Trump about his recovery from drug addiction. It may not have been seen as a typical stop for a presidential candidate, but the conversation was heard by many Americans, providing Trump with another connection to a bloc of male voters who don't consume much mainstream media.

Von received a shout out from UFC president Dana White during Trump's election night victory speech in Florida.

'The Charlie Kirk Show'

Charlie Kirk, a cofounder of the conservative nonprofit Turning Point USA, has spent over a decade advocating for limited government and free markets among students on high school and college campuses.

Ahead of the 2024 general election, Kirk used Turning Point Action, the political advocacy arm of Turning Point USA, to boost Trump's bid for a second term and amplify his conservative message. Kirk appeared alongside Trump at campaign events in key swing states like Georgia and Nevada, which the president-elect went on to flip in November.

Kirk hosts "The Charlie Kirk Show" podcast, which serves as an influential vehicle for reaching the sort of young voters who were a key part of Trump's electoral gains.

'Full Send Podcast'

Few shows personify "the manosphere" that Trump spent the summer tapping into more than "Full Send," a podcast started by a group of influencers called the Nelk Boys. Trump has made multiple appearances on Full Send, even stumping with one of its members in Las Vegas. Unlike Bannon and some others on this list, the Nelk Boys are not explicitly political, which made their audience ripe for Trump's 2024 appeals but also means they're unlikely to engage in the day-to-day news cycle.

Adin Ross

Adin Ross, an internet personality and popular streamer, sat down with Trump this past August and in a departure from many interviews — gifted the Republican a gold Rolex watch and a customized Tesla Cybertruck.

Ross became a big name through his livestreams of video games, and Trump's interview with the streamer was one more way that he was able to connect with a male-skewing audience.

'The Dan Bongino Show'

Dan Bongino, a former Secret Service agent, is so firmly entrenched in the conservative space that he was selected to replace the late Rush Limbaugh in his coveted time slot. Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio and other influential leaders on the right have pushed Trump to name Bongino to run the agency tasked with protecting the president. In the meantime, Bongino has been a vocal proponent of Trump's other nominees and helped lead a pressure campaign to push Sen. Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican, to back Trump's pick to lead the Pentagon.

'Verdict with Ted Cruz'

Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas has repeatedly offered his full-throated support to Trump, a stark contrast to the bitter end to his 2016 GOP primary run. Like Bannon, Cruz launched his podcast amid Trump's first impeachment battle. He has since used his platform to shed light on Congress and to discuss the news of the day.

With a 53-47 Republican Senate majority beginning in January, Trump can't afford many defections if he wants to get his agenda through the upper chamber. Cruz is well-positioned to serve as a narrator for a far more supportive group than the one that repeatedly vexed Trump in his first term.

'The Megyn Kelly Show'

Many in Trump's orbit once detested former Fox News journalist Megyn Kelly after she asked him during a 2015 GOP presidential debate about past inflammatory comments directed toward women.

"You've called women you don't like fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals," she asked at the time. "Does that sound to you like the temperament of a man we should elect as president?"

Trump repeatedly blasted Kelly after the interview.

But in the intervening years, Kelly left Fox and was hired by NBC News before a tumultuous departure. She's since become a major conservative voice in the podcast world and interviewed Trump on her show in September 2023.

Ahead of the 2024 election, she appeared alongside Trump at a Pennsylvania rally, voicing her support for his campaign and calling him a "protector of women."

'All-In Podcast'

Key venture capitalists embraced Trump ahead of the 2024 election, including former PayPal executive David Sacks. Sacks and fellow venture capitalists, Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis, and David Friedberg, hold court on their podcast, "All-In," which was launched during the pandemic.

It remains to be seen how involved Sacks will be going forward on the podcast now that Trump has named him his AI and crypto czar. Trump made an appearance during a June episode.

• Jeff Bezos and Donald Trump have been at odds over the years.
• However, Bezos says Trump has "probably grown in the last 8 years" and he'd like to help him in "reducing regulation."
• The two men recently had dinner at Mar-a-Lago.

A dinner between Donald Trump and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is the latest development in their history, which has seen both men criticize each other publicly.

Bezos has spoken out against Donald Trump in the past — and vice versa. However, Bezos has changed his tune on the president-elect, saying he is feeling optimistic now about Trump's return to the Oval Office.

Speaking at The New York Times' DealBook Summit earlier this month, Bezos said he's "actually very optimistic" about another Trump term.

"What I've seen so far is he is calmer than he was the first time and more settled," he said. "You've probably grown in the last eight years. He has too."

Bezos said he's also encouraged by Trump's deregulation aims, which include his newly created Department of Government Efficiency, headed by Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk, a Trump ally and major donor to his campaign.

"He seems to have a lot of energy around reducing regulation. If I can help do that, I'm going to help him," Bezos said.

Bezos, alongside fiancée Lauren Sánchez, recently met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago for dinner, joined by Musk.

The billionaire Amazon founder and Trump have been contentious at times. In 2016, Bezos said Trump's wish to lock up Hillary Clinton or refuse to accept a loss in that election "erodes our democracy around the edges."

"One of the things that makes this country as amazing as it is, we are allowed to criticize and scrutinize our elected leaders," Bezos said at the time.

"An appropriate thing for a presidential candidate to do is say, 'I am running for the highest office in the world, please scrutinize me,'" he continued. "That's not what we've seen. To try and chill the media and threaten retribution and retaliation, which is what he's done in a number of cases, it just isn't appropriate."

Following Trump's election that year, Bezos was one of several tech leaders who met with the president-elect in a summit Bezos later described as "very productive." Introducing himself in the meeting, Bezos added that he was "super excited about the possibilities this could be the innovation administration."

Trump and Amazon

While campaigning for the 2016 presidential election, Trump said Amazon would have "such problems" if he became president.

In 2017, he tweeted that the company was "doing great damage to tax paying retailers" and that "towns, cities and states throughout the U.S. are being hurt."

He repeated similar sentiments the following year, saying that Amazon was pushing smaller retailers out of business.

Trump has also said on multiple occasions that Amazon should be paying more for USPS deliveries.

"Why is the United States Post Office, which is losing many billions of dollars a year, while charging Amazon and others so little to deliver their packages, making Amazon richer and the Post Office dumber and poorer?" he tweeted in 2017. "Should be charging MUCH MORE!"

In 2019, Amazon filed a federal complaint challenging the Department of Defense's decision to award Microsoft a $10 billion contract to move sensitive data to a cloud server rather than Amazon Web Services.

The company said in the complaint that Trump swayed the decision to "pursue his own personal and political ends" and to harm Bezos, "his perceived political enemy." Amazon said Trump made "repeated public and behind-the-scenes attacks" about the company and Bezos, who was still CEO at the time.

In 2021, the DoD canceled the contract with Microsoft and announced a multi-vendor contract to seek proposals from Microsoft and AWS as "the only Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) capable of meeting the Department's requirements."

Trump and The Washington Post

Trump has repeatedly criticized The Washington Post, which Bezos owns.

In 2019, Trump bashed Bezos and the Post as he appeared to talk about Bezos' divorce from MacKenzie Scott.

"So sorry to hear the news about Jeff Bozo being taken down by a competitor whose reporting, I understand, is far more accurate than the reporting in his lobbyist newspaper, the Amazon Washington Post," Trump wrote on X. "Hopefully the paper will soon be placed in better & more responsible hands!"

For the first time in decades, the newspaper didn't publish an endorsement of a presidential candidate in 2024. Bezos reportedly intervened to block an endorsement of Kamala Harris that had already been drafted.

Bezos later wrote an op-ed defending the newspaper's decision to decline to endorse, saying endorsements "create a perception of bias" and "do nothing to tip the scales of an election."

Trump and Bezos

After the assassination attempt on Trump at a Pennsylvania rally in July 2024, Bezos broke a hiatus of nearly nine months on X, formerly known as Twitter, to write, "Our former President showed tremendous grace and courage under literal fire tonight. So thankful for his safety and so sad for the victims and their families."

Following Trump's second election win, Jeff Bezos congratulated him on "an extraordinary political comeback and decisive victory," wishing the president-elect "all success in leading and uniting the America we all love."

CEOs and business leaders quickly began making the journey to Mar-a-Lago in Florida to meet with the president-elect, and Trump mentioned that a dinner with Bezos was planned.

″Mark Zuckerberg's been over to see me, and I can tell you, Elon is another and Jeff Bezos is coming up next week, and I want to get ideas from them," Trump told CNBC's Jim Cramer in December.

After Meta confirmed plans to donate $1 million to Trump's inauguration fund, Amazon followed suit with its own $1 million donation.

Bezos and Trump ended up dining together, and were joined by Musk, who said it was a "great conversation."

• Trump has proposed 25% tariffs on imports from Canada, China, and Mexico.
• Trump said he doesn't "believe" the tariffs would cause price increases at home.
• But, he told Kristen Welker on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday, "I can't guarantee anything."

President-elect Donald Trump, in an NBC News interview that aired on Sunday, said he doesn't "believe" his tariff proposal will raise consumer prices for American families but stopped short of making a promise.

"I can't guarantee anything," Trump told "Meet the Press" moderator Kristen Welker in his first major network television interview since the November general election. "I can't guarantee tomorrow."

Trump then said that before the COVID-19 pandemic, he placed tariffs "on a lot of different countries."

"We took in hundreds of billions of dollars and we had no inflation," the president-elect told Welker. "In fact, when I handed it over, they didn't have inflation for a year and a half."

Trump in November floated 25% tariffs on imports from Canada, China, and Mexico, the top three trading partners of the United States. The president-elect has criticized what he says is the free flow of drugs and illegal migrants into the United States from the three countries.

Late last month, Trump also threatened economic sanctions against the BRICS group, a bloc of nine emerging market countries. He said he would institute "100% tariffs" if they sought to "move away" from the US dollar.

Trump, while on NBC, reiterated that he's a "big believer in tariffs" — calling them "beautiful" — and said the United States is subsidizing Canada and Mexico.

"If we're going to subsidize them, let them become a state," the president-elect said. "We're subsidizing Mexico, and we're subsidizing Canada, and we're subsidizing many countries all over the world. And all I want to do is have a level, fast, but fair playing field."

Late last month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada traveled to Mar-a-Lago to dine with Trump after his tariff threats. Trudeau later said he had an "excellent conversation" with the president-elect.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum also described her recent conversation with Trump as "excellent," stating that the two discussed her country's plans for migration.

The economy was a top issue for voters in the November election, with Trump defeating Vice President Kamala Harris largely due to dissatisfaction with President Joe Biden's handling of inflation. Harris sought to define her economic plan — zeroing in on price gouging and tackling housing affordability — but she could not reverse Trump's advantage on the issue.

Across the United States, Trump cut into traditional Democratic advantages with working-class voters and minority groups, with many siding with him at the ballot box over his focus on inflation.

• The Harris campaign has $1.8 million cash after spending over $1 billion in the 2024 race.
• Harris continually raked in money during her 107-day presidential campaign against Donald Trump.
• But Harris could not overcome the headwinds against her party, coming up short in the swing states.

After President Joe Biden stepped aside as the Democratic nominee last summer, the party felt an enormous jolt of energy as Vice President Kamala Harris embarked on a 107-day presidential campaign against Donald Trump.

Throughout her campaign, Harris raised more than $1 billion, a stunning figure that mirrored the quick rise of her campaign.

But Trump, now the president-elect, defeated Harris in the general election, with the vice president coming up short in the swing states.

New federal filings show that the Harris campaign had $1.8 million remaining in the bank after spending over $1 billion against Trump in the presidential race.

In the filings, the Harris campaign also reported that it had no debts.

The filings reveal the pace of spending for the Harris campaign, which began with heightened enthusiasm from Democrats and major donors who had grown despondent over Biden's chances after a disastrous debate against Trump raised questions about his ability to mount a robust reelection campaign.

From October 17 through November 25, which included some of the most frenzied stretches of the campaign through the postelection period, Harris raised $160 million and spent over $270 million. The Trump campaign raked in nearly $87 million during that same period and spent $113 million, the president-elect's campaign filings indicated.

Harris held large rallies in swing states like Georgia and Pennsylvania throughout her campaign, especially in the immediate weeks leading up to the election. And despite the vice president's financial advantage over Trump, she had to boost her profile to an electorate that had long expected Biden to be the nominee and was uncertain about her positions on various issues — from tackling inflation to her approach to foreign policy.

The new FEC report also seemingly puts to rest any talk that the Harris campaign is heavily in debt, a notion that the campaign rejected last month when it told The New York Times that "there will be no debt" on the filings.

But in the weeks since the general election, Democrats have still received fundraising appeals from the Harris operation. The "Harris Fight Fund" is the postelection operation of the general election "Harris Victory Fund" and is touted as a way to help provide accountability for the Trump administration.

The Democratic National Committee's newest filings revealed that it had over $47 million in cash on hand, while its rival, the Republican National Committee, had nearly $43 million in the bank.

Business Insider reached out to the Harris campaign for comment.

• In the 2024 election, Donald Trump won 312 electoral votes to Kamala Harris' 226 electoral votes.
• Each candidate sought to present themselves as the better steward of the economy.
• But President-elect Trump emerged victorious, sweeping the seven major battleground states.

Headed into Election Day, the presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump appeared deadlocked, with polls showing a close race across the seven swing states.

But Trump came out on top, with the president-elect sweeping the battleground states and making critical gains among a broad slice of the electorate, from young voters and Latino men to suburban voters and rural voters.

The president-elect's victory came as he retained his long-standing advantage on economic issues through Election Day.

Here's a look at why the 2020 race between President Joe Biden and Trump was such a departure from this year's contest between Harris and Trump.

Trump made significant inroads in the suburbs, where the economy was a key issue

In 2020, Biden emerged victorious in the suburbs, winning over voters in this key group 50% to 48%, according to CNN exit polling.

Harris was hoping that strong support from suburban voters, especially among college-educated women, would aid her, with her campaign banking that her prosecutorial background would match up well against that of Trump — who has been embroiled in an array of legal issues over his push to overturn the 2020 election results.

While Harris performed well in many of the suburbs that paved the way for Biden's 2020 election, she simply did not win by the margins she needed to overcome Trump's burst in support from white voters without college degrees, as well as the drop-off in support from Latino and Asian voters compared to the president's performance.

This year, Trump won suburban voters 51% to 47%, per CNN exit polling, a four-point edge that allowed him to hold the line in areas where Democrats were hoping to run up the score. And the shift allowed him to flip Maricopa County, and thus, win back Arizona, which had been one of Biden's most impressive victories in 2020.

Similar to other groups, the economy was critical for suburban voters, with inflation and housing costs being paramount. In Arizona, a state dominated by Phoenix and its vast Maricopa-anchored suburbs, the economy was the second-most important issue for voters, only trailing the issue of democracy.

According to CNN exit polling, 42% of the Arizona electorate said the economy was in "poor" condition, and 89% of those voters backed Trump, compared to 10% for Harris. By comparison, only 6% of respondents considered the economy to be "excellent," and 99% of those voters supported Harris, with only 1% backing Trump.

Trump hammered home an economic message centered on lowering costs, forging ahead with new housing construction on federal land, and cutting government relations that he said hampered growth. In western states like Arizona and Nevada, where housing affordability has been a major issue, the issue took on added resonance. Harris had high-profile economic proposals of her own, including a $25,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers, but it wasn't enough to swing the race.

Turnout declined in key Democratic areas

After Biden exited the race in July and Harris stepped into her role as the Democratic Party's standard bearer, she was faced with running a 107-day campaign. While Harris had been Biden's No. 2 for over three years at that point, she was still unfamiliar to a considerable slice of the electorate.

Despite Biden's decline in support with groups that had fueled his 2020 victory — which included Black, Latino, and young voters — he was a known commodity. And Harris, in many ways, had to reintroduce herself to millions of Americans who were open to backing her but had reservations about the Biden administration on issues like inflation and border security.

From Harris' first major rally as a 2024 presidential candidate in Wisconsin to her Election eve turnout push in vote-rich Philadelphia, she crisscrossed the swing states, aiming to hold on to the blue wall battleground states while also eyeing gains in the Sun Belt.

But compared to 2020, turnout declined on the Democratic side.

Four years ago, the Biden-Harris ticket won over 81 million votes, compared to 74 million votes for Trump and then-Vice President Mike Pence. So far, Harris has earned just under 75 million votes, compared to a little over 77 million votes for Trump.

Democratic strength in New Jersey and New York fell sharply, with Harris faring worse than Biden in those solidly blue states.

Voters did boost their numbers in several key battlegrounds, though.

Georgia hit a turnout record of almost 5.3 million voters this year, and despite Harris losing the state by 2.2 points (50.7% to 48.5%), she earned more votes in the Peach State than Biden did when he won the state by 0.23 percent (49.47% to 49.24%) in 2020.

Harris won 2,548,017 votes in Georgia this year, compared to Biden's 2,473,633 votes four years ago. But Trump won 2,663,117 votes this year, giving him a 115,100-vote advantage over Harris.

In Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, more votes were tallied between the two major-party candidates this year compared to 2020, but this didn't benefit Harris as Democratic strength declined in cities like Detroit and Philadelphia.

For example, Harris won Philadelphia, the most populous city in Pennsylvania, by a hefty 79% to 20% margin. But in 2020, Biden won Philadelphia 81% to 18%. And while Biden earned 604,175 votes in the city, Harris currently has 568,571 votes there, according to NBC News.

Turnout fell across Philadelphia this year, allowing Trump to post gains in what has long been known as one of the most Democratic cities in the country.

• Since law school, JD Vance's wife has been tight-lipped about her political beliefs.
• Usha Vance was a registered Democrat until 2014 and worked at what some consider a progressive law firm.
• Vance has said she has "not given a ton of thought" to the issues she'd focus on as second lady.

Usha Vance's classmates at Yale Law School didn't know much about her politics. Weeks before she becomes second lady, the nation doesn't know much, either.

"She was more tight-lipped, at least in my experience, with her political views," said Marvin Lim, a Democrat in the Georgia House of Representatives who also graduated in 2013. He wasn't close with either of the Vances, but said that they "certainly communicated a great deal."

"I don't remember ever having a political conversation with Usha," Elliot Forhan, a Democrat representative in Ohio who took a small class with Usha but wasn't close friends with her, said. "She just didn't really show her cards with respect to the political stuff."

Vance, 38, will make history as the nation's first Indian American and first Hindu second lady. She'll also be the second-youngest person to fill the role, after Jane Hadley Barkley, wife of former Vice President Alben Barkley in 1949.

Usha Chilukuri met JD Vance while at Yale Law School. The two were in the same small group of approximately 15 students who take all of their classes together, the New York Times reported. They got married in 2014, one year after graduating, and Lim said that their affection for each other was obvious. Less obvious, however, is Usha Vance's political orientation and relationship to the newfound national spotlight.

Vance grew up in a suburb of San Diego, raised by a mechanical engineer and a biologist. One of her family friends, Vikram Rao, told The Times that she was a natural and kind leader, selecting what games they played and setting the rules by age five.

After getting her undergraduate degree from Yale, she studied copyright law at Cambridge. In February of 2006, a campus tabloid magazine at Yale described her "as "of the leftish political persuasion," but noted that she opted for romantic partners who are "tall, handsome, and conservative." One of her friends at Cambridge, Gabriel Winant, said that her social circle was left of center and even dotted with the occasional leftist, the Times reported.

While her political views weren't recognizable to casual peers at Yale Law School, her leadership was evident. Both Forhan and Lim said that she wasn't particularly loud in class, but didn't fade into the background, either. Her drive didn't seem to extend to politics.

"She didn't express political ambitions, but she did have ambition," Lim told Business Insider, noting that she went on to have prestigious judicial clerkships after graduation. "We knew those were things she wanted to do, but not political ambitions."

A representative for Usha Vance declined to comment for this story.

From a 'woke' law firm to conservative clerkships, Vance's political orientations remained murky after law school.

After graduating from law school, Vance clerked for a pre-SCOTUS Brett Kavanaugh from 2014-2015 and Chief Justice John Roberts from 2017-2018. In addition, she worked at the law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson, but resigned on Monday when her husband became the GOP nominee for vice president. The law firm has since removed her biography, and with it all of her past cases, though the website used to describe her as "a skilled litigator specializing in higher education, local government, and technology sectors."

The magazine The American Lawyer described Munger, Tolles & Olson as "cool, woke" in 2019, with a "radically progressive" policy on gender and racial diversity in hiring, Vanity Fair reported. Despite his wife's workplace environment, JD Vance championed the "Dismantle DEI Act" in June, 2024, calling the DEI agenda "destructive." In 2022, two colleagues at the firm described Usha Vance as liberal or moderate to The Times.

To make her political affiliations even murkier, Vance was a registered Democrat until 2014, The Times reported. Yet she shifted to the right alongside her husband — in 2021, Federal Election Commission records reveal that she donated to Blake Masters, a conservative Senate candidate in Arizona backed by tech billionaire Peter Thiel. And Thiel has known JD Vance since at least 2011, when the tech magnate spoke at Yale. In 2024, Thiel was instrumental in cementing Vance's spot on the Trump ticket.

Vance hasn't always seemed eager to be center stage.

When JD Vance was himself running for Senate, Usha Vance appeared in his very first campaign ad, sitting in front of a bookshelf and talking about their three children. In an interview with Newsmax during the campaign, she said that her husband has not changed in the many years of their relationship.

After her initial appearance, Vance largely faded out of her husband's campaign, but became more active as voting day neared. The same was true of this year's presidential election: Vance introduced her husband at the Republican National Convention, but didn't speak at other public campaign events, ABC reported. She helped behind the scenes, assisting with debate prep and offering feedback on rallies, according to NBC News.

In an interview on Fox & Friends in June, Usha Vance seemed ambivalent about taking on a public political role. During the conversation, she didn't wholly embrace the possibility of becoming the second lady.

"I don't know that anyone is ever ready for that kind of scrutiny," she said. "I'm not raring to change anything about our lives are right now, but I believe in JD and I really love him, so we'll just sort of see what happens."

She declined to specify what issues she would tackle in the White House, saying that "we might be getting a little ahead of ourselves."

Vance has consistently defended her husband in the face of controversy, like when she called his infamous childless cat ladies comment a "quip."

As the election inched closer, Vance remained vague about her personal political plans.

"This is such an intense and busy experience that I have not given a ton of thought to my own roles and responsibility," she told NBC News in late October when asked what she'd focus on as second lady. "It's just something that I've never really — it's not something I'm terribly familiar with."

Vance went on to say that she'd "collect some information" and circle back to the question after November 5, depending on the election results. With the results in, she has yet share any specific plans.

While Usha Vance's political orientations and interest in life as a national figure remain foggy, her devotion to her husband has seemed strong since her days at Yale Law School.

"In terms of political beliefs, she held that close to her chest, but in terms of being supportive of JD, that does not surprise me," Lim said.

• Apple CEO Tim Cook is visiting China for the third time this year.
• Cook attended discussions focused on supply chain and trade issues, per Bloomberg.
• China is one of Apple's largest producers and most important markets.

Apple CEO Tim Cook is visiting China for at least the third time this year as the tech giant prepares for president-elect Donald Trump's proposed import tariffs and the impact on global trade.

Cook joined more than 20 top executives on Monday for a roundtable discussion with Chinese Premier Li Qiang ahead of a five-day supply chain conference in Beijing, according to a Bloomberg report.

According to Bloomberg, the discussion was focused on supply chain and trade issues. It is the first high-level roundtable between a senior Beijing official and foreign companies since Trump won the US presidential election earlier this month.

Companies around the world are bracing for the president-elect's proposed tariff policies. Trump has said he would introduce a 60% tariff on Chinese goods and a levy of at least 10% on goods imported from every other country.

China is one of Apple's largest producers and most important international markets. Previous estimates have indicated that over 95% of its iPhones, AirPods, Macs, and iPads are made in China.

"I value them very highly. We could not do what we do without them," Cook said of Apple's partners in China in an interview on Monday posted by a social media account connected to China Central Television.

Apple has also been grappling with a sales slowdown in China over the past year as local rivals such as Huawei take more market share.

It has also faced pressure from the Chinese government as employees were told not to use iPhones at work. The government has previously denied these reports.

Cook has made at least three public appearances in China this year to show his commitment to the country. He was previously in Beijing last month to discuss increasing investment in China.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

• In recent years, young Americans moved to rural areas at rates not seen in decades.
• But that doesn't mean they're turning rural counties red.
• Millennials and Gen Zers became more conservative, like the country as a whole.

In the years leading up to the election, young people flocked from urban areas to rural counties at record rates — but they didn't necessarily bring their big-city politics with them.

In fact, nine of the top 10 counties to which Americans aged 25 to 44 moved between 2020 and 2023 voted for Trump this year. All of those top counties happen to be classified as rural or have under 250,000 residents.

This is based on a Business Insider analysis of 2020 and 2024 election results as reported by The New York Times, and a September report on migration patterns among younger Americans by University of Virginia demographer Hamilton Lombard.

Even Hays County, Texas — the only county in that group that voted Democratic in both 2020 and 2024 — got more red, as seen in the table below. The colored swing column in the table shows the percentage point change in vote share for Trump between 2020 and 2024. The blue squares mean fewer of that county's votes went to Trump in 2024; however, the majority still went Republican in both elections, as seen in the last two columns. Counties in red swung even more toward Trump in 2024 than in 2020.

The politics of America's counties are changing

Rural areas moved right, and big cities like New York got substantially redder between 2020 and 2024, said economist Jed Kolko. He said some of the shift in already-conservative areas might be because movers wanted to go somewhere that aligned with their politics. City dwellers also may have gotten more conservative.

"The people who leave big blue cities probably don't have the same politics — or don't have exactly the same politics — as people who stay," Kolko said. "And wanting to move to a community where people have similar views could be on the list of reasons why someone moves."

Millennials and Gen Zers — both represented in that 25 to 44 group — have swung more to the right. Vice President Kamala Harris' margins among those groups shrunk in 2024 from President Joe Biden's lead in 2020, exit polling from CNN as of November 6, the most recent data available, showed.

While turnout of voters aged 18 to 29 rose in 2020, it fell again in 2024. Those who did vote went more conservative. In 2024, 46% of young voters voted for Trump, compared to 36% in 2020, an analysis from the nonpartisan Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement found.

To be sure, early exit poll data has a wide margin of error. As more votes are counted in the coming days and months, more precise data on the shape of the 2024 electorate will be released.

Data also shows that while age may not be as determinative of political affiliation as it once was, where people migrated from might be a bit more instructive, per the bipartisan public policy organization the Economic Innovation Group. Red areas with migration influxes from blue counties saw, in some cases, smaller swings towards Trump, and in at least one such county Trump lost vote share.

Some of those voting swings might be chalked up to increasing political polarization along educational lines.

"There's been a trend over many elections that places where more people have a college degree vote more democratic," Kolko said. "That trend was even stronger in 2024 than it was in previous years."

Did you move to a rural area, or somewhere that aligns better with your politics? Contact this reporter at [email protected].