This Man Is Spending Millions to Break Elon Musk's Trump Ties

The day Donald Trump was elected President, Doug Derwin came into a lot of money. Derwin is a lawyer turned venture capitalist, and he’d cashed in on a successful investment. Like so many wealthy, Silicon Valley types, Derwin used the windfall to buy a Tesla Inc. electric car and stick it to the man -- or at least to the climate-change deniers he thought Trump represented. “One of the reasons I felt good about buying it was as a sort of statement in opposition to what was happening around me,” Derwin says.

But, as Derwin’s order worked its way through Tesla’s manufacturing backlog, he had second thoughts. Elon Musk, Tesla’s co-founder and chief executive officer, was meeting Trump and joining committees in the new administration. The more Derwin dwelled on this, the angrier he became. And so, after receiving an email in February saying his Model S sedan was finally ready, Derwin cancelled the purchase. He still cut a check for $150,000 -- only he donated it to the American Civil Liberties Union.