Tech CEO David Marcus reverses course, endorses Trump after years voting for Dems

Lighspark is a tech company that "enables low-cost, interoperable, and secure transactions using the Lightning Network," per the company website. Some of Lightspark's clients include Coinbase, Bitso, and Bitnob. Marcus's bio on the website says, "David is the CEO and co-founder of Lightspark. Most recently, he led all payments and crypto efforts on Meta/Facebook. In 2018, David started Diem (fka Libra). He joined Meta in 2014 to lead Messenger, which he took from under 200M monthly users to over 1.5B. Previously, he was PayPal’s President. A lifelong entrepreneur, David launched two companies in Europe and then founded mobile payments company Zong in Silicon Valley, which was acquired by PayPal in 2011."

Marcus announced on X that he is finally "crossing the Rubicon and backing the Republican Party and President Trump" in a post. He said that his "journey has been a gradual political 180" from where he has stood in previous elections in the US and that it has been an "eye-opening process of disenchantment."

In his message, Marcus spoke about the different instances of gradually making the shift starting in 2017, then in 2019 he testified before the Senate and the House and had engaged with lawmakers.

"At the time, I still believed the mainstream idea that Democrats were all about serving the People. However, I was shocked to learn that, for the most part, Republicans cared more deeply about their constituents, while Democrats, in my experience, cared more about government power and control," Marcus wrote.

He added that COVID-19 also played a large role in him shifting to the right on politics. "While I don’t subscribe to the most malicious vaccine conspiracy theories, I do take offense at the censorship machine put in place to hide the origin of the virus from the NIH-funded Wuhan lab and all dissenting voices on vaccinations and lockdowns," he wrote.

Marcus said that the Democratic Party as it stands is "sidelining moderates and centrists and has adopted an increasingly leftist ideology."

"I believe we need a President who is unequivocally pro: America, the Constitution, business, Bitcoin/crypto, innovation, Israel, small government, legal immigration, free speech, meritocracy, and common sense — and anti: regulatory proliferation, illegal immigration, unjust wars, Iran’s current regime, and domestic groups that oppose American values. These issues are central to President Trump’s platform," Marcus wrote.

He ended his post with an endorsement of Trump in the 2025 race. The endorsement comes as many others in the Silicon Valley area have seemed to shift over to the Republicans for this elections cycle. Other large tech CEOs have endorsed Trump in recent months.