Republican trading firm owner and TikTok investor Yass emerges as top donor in US election [View all]
March 21 (Reuters) - The biggest donor in this U.S. election cycle is Jeffrey Yass, a libertarian trading firm owner who started off as a professional poker player and is now a major investor in TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance.
Philadelphia-based Yass has donated more than $46 million to Republican causes so far in the 2024 election cycle, data from political donations tracker OpenSecrets shows.
The funds have gone to support former rivals of Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, as well as a raft of groups supporting school choice, programs that use taxpayer dollars to send students to private and religious schools.
Yass, 65, was thrust into the spotlight this month after Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, reversed course on his preference for banning TikTok, saying that a ban would hurt some children and only strengthen Meta Platforms' (META.O), opens new tab Facebook.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/republican-hedge-fund-owner-tiktok-investor-yass-emerges-top-donor-us-election-2024-03-21/
