Kamala Harris’ billionaire friend Laurene Powell Jobs owns the liberal magazine behind the ‘widely controversial’ Trump report

The Atlantic has faced intense criticism in recent days for an unflattering report on the issue former President Trump all of which has been labeled from “false” to “hit piece” by critics and even those involved in the story, and a look at the liberal publication’s powerful owner reveals a “real friendship” with Vice President Kamala Harris.

Billionaire philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobsthe widow of Apple visionary Steve Jobs and one of the richest people on earth, owns the Emerson Collective, which bought a majority stake in The Atlantic in 2017.

Powell Jobs and Harris are both 60-year-old women who rose to prominence in liberal Northern California, but they have much more in common. The New York Times reported last month that Powell Jobs, who is reportedly worth more than $11 billion, is one of Harris’ “most vital confidants” who has doled out money and advice to help raise the vice president’s public profile.

Now, in this year’s presidential race, the richest woman in Silicon Valley has emerged as a powerful player behind the scenes. She has quietly contributed millions of dollars to an organization that supports Ms. Harris, according to three people who spoke about the gifts. have been informed.” the Times reported.

THE ATLANTIC REPORT PROVES TRUMP DISPARAGED KILLED ARMY PRIVATE DESTROYED BY FAMILY, OTHERS: ‘ABSOLUTELY FALSE’

“She played a hidden but key role in helping Biden get out of the race, paving the way for a Harris run,” the Times continued. “Powell Jobs, who is so close to the vice president that her staff calls her simply “LPJ,” is positioned to have extraordinary influence, or at least access, in a potential Harris administration.”

The Times noted that three dozen sources with “insight into their bond” believe Harris and Powell Jobs have a “genuine friendship built on a shared political philosophy, an interest in arts and culture and their mutual travails as women in the public spotlight .”

When Harris was sworn in as a United States senator in 2017, she called on Powell Jobs to take a photo with her family. “My extended family is here,” Harris said as she waved to Powell Jobs and other close friends, the Times reported.

According to the Times, Harris and Powell Jobs have taken personal trips together, sometimes on the philanthropist’s private plane. Powell Jobs attended Harris’ 2014 wedding to Doug Emhoff, and Emhoff attended Powell Jobs’ son’s wedding in Hawaii earlier this year. Powell Jobs has also visited the Biden-Harris White House at least nine times, according to the Times.

ATLANTIC ARTICLE COMPARING TRUMP TO ‘HITLER, STALIN’ LEADS ONLINE CRITICISM FROM JOURNALISTS AND PUNDITS

She also attended the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where she regularly sat in an exclusive box for Harris’ friends and family.

Powell Jobs, who was married to Steve Jobs from 1991 until his death in 2011 and paid about $70 million for the most expensive home in San Francisco earlier this year, has also opened her wallet to help Harris choose and urge others to do the same to do.

Powell Jobs has reportedly urged other influential women and megadonors to support Harris, though the Times noted that she is happy to make “undisclosed contributions” and that she has “donated millions to Future Forward’s dark money vehicle,” while friends wondered whether she would look for a formal role in administration if her friend gains the upper hand.

Many of her donations have not been disclosed, but Powell Jobs has openly donated to a plethora of high-profile Democrats over the years, including Chuck Schumer, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Barbara Boxer, Andrew Cuomo, Gavin Newsom, Beto O’Rourke, Kirsten Gillibrand, Tammy Duckworth, Dianne Feinstein, Elizabeth Warren, Kathleen Hochul, Cory Booker, Andrew Gillum, Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi, in addition to Harris and groups like Planned Parenthood, according to Open secrets.

WHITE HOUSE ATTACKS ‘FALSE’ ATLANTIC STORY ABOUT TRUMP INSULTING DEAD SOLDIERS: ‘WHAT A SHAME!’

Fortune also spotlighted the close friendship between Powell Jobs and Harris last month with a piece calling the Atlantic honcho one of the vice president’s “biggest bankrollers.”

“Not only has Powell Jobs consistently donated to Democrats, but she has also taken a special interest in her friend Harris. In 2023, Powell Jobs made three donations to the Biden and Harris re-election campaigns, amounting to nearly $1 million,” Fortune reported.

Powell Jobs has posted on

In 2017, Powell Jobs took then-Senator Harris for one interview on stage with journalist Kara Swisher at the Code Conference. Swisher asked the friends if any of them would run for president in 2020. Powell Jobs said, “One of us would… I have to vote for her,” as he pointed to Harris.

Steve Jobs’ widow takes $94 million from California

Seven years later, as speculation mounts that Powell Jobs could either be directly involved or at least extremely influential behind the scenes at a potential Harris White House, her liberal news organization is taking center stage with a brutal story about Trump that is both widely circulated and investigated.

Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg wrote one long report published Tuesday about Trump’s interaction with the family of 20-year-old Vanessa Guillén, the daughter of Mexican immigrants who was killed by a fellow soldier at Fort Hood in April 2020.

After her remains were discovered two months later, Trump comforted Guillén’s family at the White House and offered to provide financial assistance to cover funeral costs. But Goldberg reported that Trump became enraged when he got the bill, refused to pay it, saying, “It doesn’t cost $60,000 to bury a damn Mexican!”

According to the report, Natalie Khawam, Guillén’s family attorney, told Goldberg that the family had not received any money from Trump and that the costs were ultimately partially covered by the military and donations.

Khawam has since accused The Atlantic’s Goldberg of lying. Guillén’s sister, Mayra Guillén, also denounced The Atlantic’s report and voiced her support for Trump.

CNN’S JAKE TAPPER ADMITS HIS DEMOCRATIC FRIENDS ARE ‘TERRIFIED’. HARRIS DID NOT CLOSE THE DEAL

Curtis Houck, editor-in-chief of NewsBusters, a conservative media watchdog, criticized The Atlantic as a “political money laundering operation for Laurene Powell Jobs and her fellow liberal elites” to highlight their talking points.

“She has a boring editor-in-chief in Jeffrey Goldberg who not only shares her worldview, but has shown himself to be the ultimate pinprick who displays a ruthless arrogance,” Houck told Fox News Digital.

“If Laurene Powell Jobs told him to write a story about how great Trump is, he would comply because that is his role in the world,” Houck added. “The Atlantic is where white liberals go to feel like they are still in charge and can claim that they think more deeply and care more than people in real America.”

Goldberg’s Atlantic piece made another explosive claim in the piece that Trump once said: “I need the kind of generals Hitler had.” People who were completely loyal to him, who followed orders,” citing two unnamed sources who reportedly heard him say. it in the White House.

A Trump spokesperson called the claim “absolutely false,” telling The Atlantic, “President Trump never said this.”

The Atlantic has decisively pushed back on the idea that Powell Jobs was involved in the Goldberg piece or in editorial decisions.

“There is a strict firewall between The Atlantic’s newsroom and our business side and ownership. The editorial team operates completely independently. Our ownership has no influence on what we report or publish,” Anna Bross, senior vice president of communications for The Atlantic, told me . Fox News digital.

CNN DATA GURU SAYS THERE IS A 60% CHANCE THAT THE ELECTION WILL END WITH AN ‘ELECTORAL COLLEGE BLOWOUT’

Fox News contributor Joe Concha said The Atlantic’s attempt to damage Trump just days before the election “has no legs.”

“It has been widely disputed, including by the family involved, and this reporter has a history of involvement in democratic activism. Remember, Jeffrey Goldberg is the same so-called journalist who promoted the “suckers and losers” hoax. 2020, and at the time he promised that there would be more confirmation of this alleged comment from Trump… we are still waiting,” Concha said. Fox News Digitl.

“Voters have been hearing for nine years that Trump is Hitler,” Concha added. “And that’s why these stories don’t move the needle any further.”

But despite the denials and harsh rebuttals, The Atlantic’s attempt to take down Trump provided CNN and MSNBC talking points for much of the week.

The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Emerson Collective did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Joseph A. Wulfsohn of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.