Elections

Prolific Clinton Donor Freaks Out Over Trump Win, Launches California Secession Effort

Donald Trump: JStone/shutterstock.com, Hillary Clinton: Evan El-Amin/shutterstock.com

Chuck Ross Investigative Reporter
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A Silicon Valley venture capitalist who hosted a $353,400-per-person fundraiser for Hillary Clinton earlier this year has launched a campaign for California to secede from the union to protest Donald Trump’s election victory.

Shervin Pishevar, the co-founder of Hyperloop One, announced the plan in a frenzied outburst on Twitter Tuesday night. He also tendered his resignation from the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, to which he was appointed by President Obama last July.

Pishevar, who was born in Iran, was upset that Trump carried the Electoral College while Clinton appeared poised to win the popular vote. According to CNN, Trump has 290 electoral votes to Clinton’s 228. But Clinton leads Trump in the popular vote by more than 200,000.

The tech titan said that he would soon be launching a “legitimate campaign” for California secession. That would be part of a longer term plan to scrap the Electoral College.

Pishevar, who hosted a $353,400-per-person fundraiser in for Clinton at his home in the San Francisco area in April, made the case that California’s economy is large enough to sustain itself after secession.

“As 6th largest economy in world, economic engine of nation, provider of a large % of federal budget, California carries a lot of weight,” he wrote.

“Calling for a temporary withdrawal of support during the dark Trump Presidency. Re-entry after a constitutional convention convened.”

Other left-wingers upset by Clinton’s loss made similar proposals under the hashtag #Calexit on social media.

In announcing his resignation from the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, also announced on Twitter, Pishevar wrote that “I cannot serve with a good conscious [sic] a President Trump in any capacity.

On Wednesday, Pishevar called on other Obama administration appointees to boycott the Trump presidency and renounce their political positions.

He also made comparisons to Adolf Hitler.

Emails hacked from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s Gmail account show that he was in touch with Pishevar during the campaign.

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