Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia revealed that immigration was the key issue that swung him over to supporting President Donald Trump.
"As a young Democrat, in college, I think I first voted for Al Gore back in the day," Gebbia recounted. "That's the first time I could actually vote ... I was 18 in an art school in Providence, like that's not a particularly conservative place. So I've been on my journey."
Gebbia said he supported RFK Jr.'s mission to improve Americans' health because he grew up in an "alternative medicine, health food household." His mother was the "original MAHA mom," who imposed a strict macrobiotic diet on him when he was growing up, and kept him off antibiotics until he was 18. But she instilled a belief that the quality of the food one eats determines the quality of one's health.
"Fast forward to to Bobby Kennedy ... he's saying that at a national stage, why don't we correct our health and move from what he calls sick care, which is what the world we live in today, into what probably should be should call health care, which is about the preventative stuff, about living a healthy lifestyle, about exercising, about eating ... the right foods," Gebbia said.
Beyond his alignment with the MAHA agenda, the ideological turning point for Gebbia was the Southern border during the Biden administration. He first became interested in the border crisis in 2021. He reached out to some friends on the left to help him understand the problem, but felt unfulfilled by their answers.
He then reached out to his friend, venture capitalist and health care startup co-founder Joshua Kushner, with whom he has been friends for a long time. Through him, he became acquainted with Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner. Gebbia asked those same questions of Kushner.
"He put me on this curriculum of just talking to experts in the field," Gebbia said. "And I remember like just being like, 'holy cow, this is this is crazy.' Like, this is not right. This is a real problem. And there's no reason why we shouldn't be enforcing the laws of our country and our border. And so I think as I started to pull on that thread, I began to look at other topics and eventually came to the point where I don't think I can support a political party that wants to have an open border, that lets in criminals and dangerous people into their country. This is that's not something I get behind."