Airbnb co-founder explains why he left Democrats, embraced Trump

Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia explained on “The Katie Miller Podcast” on Monday that he left the Democratic Party because of the border crisis under former President Joe Biden.

Biden presided over the highest level of net migration in U.S. history, according to The New York Times’ analysis of government data in December 2024. Gebbia said on the podcast that he started focusing on the porous border in 2021 and took it upon himself to learn about the issue.

WATCH:

Airbnb co-founder @jgebbia explains how Joe Biden’s border crisis was the start of what drove him to leave the Democrat Party. pic.twitter.com/Kdzn8mBk0w

— Katie Miller (@KatieMiller) September 1, 2025

“I think it was early 2021, mid-2021, the activity at the border caught my attention, and I just remember thinking, what’s going on with this topic? It seems as if there’s no border,” Gebbia said. “And as it got worse that year, I felt like I needed to understand this problem more.”

“So I reached out to my friends, largely on the Democratic side of the House, at all levels from the highest level all the way down, and had conversations just trying to piece together like, ‘Hey, what am I missing about this? Like, fill me in,’” he continued. “And I got some answers, but felt unfulfilled.”

Gebbia said he then called President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who put him in touch with experts to educate him.

“And I remember like just being like, ‘Holy cow, this is crazy. Like, this is not right. Like, this is a real problem.’ And there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be enforcing the laws of our country and our border,” Gebbia said.

“And so I think as I started to pull on that thread, I sort of 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,” he added. “That’s not something I can get behind.”

I have a confession to make:

I did a bad thing.

Something the younger me

Would hate myself for doing.

Something that only a few people (and maybe Bytedance) know:

I voted Republican last November.

I know, I know

I can hear the crush of disappointed voices: Say it ain’t so,…

— Joe Gebbia (@jgebbia) January 19, 2025

Border Patrol agents released a grand total of zero migrants into the interior of the United States in July for a third consecutive month, according to an August press release from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). During Biden’s tenure, tens of thousands of illegal migrants were released each month.

Trump appointed Gebbia as America’s first chief design officer in August after signing an executive order to establish “America by Design,” which is “a national initiative to improve experiences for Americans, starting by breathing new life into the design of sites where people interface with their Government.”

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