Airbnb co-founder and Trump administration official Joe Gebbia gave a complete of $2 million to tremendous PACs in help of impartial candidate Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday.
Gebbia, who listed his residence as in Texas, at present serves because the Trump administration’s chief design officer and serves on Airbnb’s board of administrators, although he now not works in an government function for the corporate. He additionally serves on the board of Tesla and labored on the Division of Authorities Effectivity.
He threw $1 million every to PACs Repair the Metropolis and Defend NYC. The filings had been made publicly obtainable on Thursday.
Professional-Trump billionaire Invoice Ackman additionally pitched Cuomo PACs more cash in latest days, sending $1 million to Defend NYC and one other $250,000 to Repair the Metropolis.
The donations come proper because the mayoral race enters the house stretch.
Gebbia, reportedly a longtime pal of Elon Musk’s, couldn’t be instantly reached for remark, however on Wednesday — when he made the donations — he wrote on social media that Democratic frontrunner Zohran Mamdani’s anti-Israel stance was “spooky.”
“Just remember, Silver Spoon Socialist Mamdani said he doesn’t believe billionaires should exist, but his own super pac accepts money from billionaires — add it to the list of hypocrisies,” Wealthy Azzopardi, a spokesperson for Cuomo mentioned in a press release.
Azzopardi added that for the reason that donations had been to a PAC, the marketing campaign has no information of them.
“I think it’s emblematic of what Andrew Cuomo’s campaign represents,” Mamdani mentioned of the donation on his strategy to Thursday night’s mayoral debate. “Which is a vehicle through which to take over the power of working people.”
Mamdani has hit on the ex-governor for his billionaire backers, lots of whom additionally help President Trump.
Gebbia’s transfer to DOGE earlier this yr prompted backlash inside the Airbnb group, with the corporate’s “community center” bombarded with unfavorable feedback together with from customers writing they’d search for journey choices elsewhere. After that, the corporate sought to distance itself publicly from Gebbia, although he nonetheless remained on the board.
Gebbia’s donations additionally come as a combat round short-term leases has intensified in New York Metropolis.
The battle round Airbnb facilities on a regulation adopted by the Metropolis Council that restricts the $77 billion firm by primarily reserving the town’s housing inventory for long-term residents as a substitute of vacationers. Lately, Airbnb has launched an aggressive marketing campaign to get the Council to move a invoice that may reduce these restrictions on some landlords.
With Chris Sommerfeldt
