There is a tweet making the rounds that distills the entire California collapse into one sharp little capsule of truth. It goes something like this:
California was a Republican state when Google was founded in 1998. That year a Republican governor, Pete Wilson was replaced by a Democrat, Gray Davis. Davis was later recalled due to incompetence, and replaced by another Republican in 2003.
For all intents, tech titans moved into a majority-White, middle-class, law-and-order state, and built fortunes under a system they didn’t create. Then they used that wealth to fund the far Left. Now, as the state eats itself, they are leaving.
You can almost hear the cash register slamming shut.
This is not a theory or partisan hysteria. It’s not a “vibes” argument, but instead this is what happens when people who profited from capitalism spend decades trying to dismantle it, only to discover that the monster they fed does not recognize them as special.
California was not always this. The state had voted for Republican presidential candidates repeatedly throughout the late 20th century. Silicon Valley grew in a culture that prized results, not feelings. It valued output, not slogans, and merit, not grievance. That environment did not happen by accident.
Then came the conversion.
The tech elite, flush with cash and drunk on moral superiority, decided they would remake America. They poured money into progressive causes, identity politics, climate hysteria, speech control, public health authoritarianism, and a regulatory state so bloated it could barely waddle. They funded the people who promised to tame capitalism while never imagining the leash would tighten around their own necks.
And now the wealthiest among them are doing what normal Californians have been doing for years. They are packing up and leaving.
Larry Page
Larry Page, Google’s co-founder, did not issue a press release. He did not cry into a microphone about democracy. He quietly moved business entities, family offices, and assets out of California as the state began flirting with a one-time wealth tax targeting billionaires. No protests. No virtue signals. Just paperwork and a moving truck. The man who helped turn California into a tech powerhouse decided the Golden State was no longer worth the price of admission.
Sergey Brin
Sergey Brin followed suit. Same story. Same silence. Same unmistakable message. When the government signals that your success is no longer tolerated but instead resented, you do not argue philosophy. You change ZIP codes.
Peter Thiel
Peter Thiel, one of the few tech figures who has been honest about the Left’s descent into madness, began expanding operations in Florida. Miami, in particular, has become a refuge for capital fleeing progressive experiments. Lower taxes. Fewer sermons. Less interest in micromanaging your thoughts. Thiel did not suddenly become “MAGA” in the way activists caricature it. He simply recognized reality before others were willing to say it out loud.
Chamath Palihapitiya
Chamath Palihapitiya, never shy with a microphone, openly warned that hundreds of billions of dollars have already fled California. Not might. Not could. Have. His tone was not ideological. It was observational. The money is gone. The tax base is shrinking. The math does not care about your pronouns.
Elon Musk
And then there is Elon Musk, the early defector. Musk left California for Texas years ago, moving Tesla and SpaceX operations out of a state that seemed more interested in regulating success than celebrating it. At the time, the Left scoffed. They mocked him. They said no one serious would abandon California. Today, Musk looks less like an outlier and more like the guy who saw the exit sign before the smoke filled the room.
This is the part the Left cannot process. These are not conservatives by temperament or not men raised on talk radio and Reagan speeches. These are people who funded the very ideology now turning on them. They believed, genuinely, that they would always be exempt. That the slogans were for other people. That the mobs were aimed elsewhere.
They were wrong. Because Leftism always needs a new enemy.
Once the corporations are captured, once the media is compliant, once the institutions are staffed with activists, the only thing left to eat is the people who paid for it all. The billionaire is no longer a hero when the revolution arrives. He is a resource.
California’s proposed wealth tax is not about revenue. It is about punishment. It is about signaling that success itself is suspect. And it is no coincidence that the tax is retroactive. That detail alone tells you everything you need to know about the mindset behind it. This is not governance. This is resentment codified into law.
Meanwhile, Gavin Newsom floats above it all like a man who has never had to clean up his own messes. Asked about businesses leaving, residents fleeing, and billionaires relocating, his response is always the same polished non-answer. California is doing great. The economy is strong. The future is bright. The exodus is exaggerated.
This would be more convincing if U-Haul data did not exist.
California has led the nation in domestic out-migration for years. Families are leaving. Middle-class workers are leaving. Small business owners are leaving. And now, even the people who could afford to stay are gone. That should terrify any governor who actually cared about the long-term viability of his state.
But Newsom does not seem bothered. He behaves like a man auditioning for a higher office, not someone tasked with managing a collapsing empire. He campaigns while Rome smolders. He smiles while the tax base evaporates. He shrugs while the very people who once bankrolled his ideological allies quietly head for the exits.
This is where the Trump effect enters the story, whether the media likes it or not.
Donald Trump did not cause this awakening. He accelerated it. He forced a confrontation between reality and narrative. He made it impossible to pretend that institutions were neutral, that science was apolitical, that media was honest, that justice was blind. Under Trump, Americans saw the mask slip. Under Biden, they watched it shatter.
COVID was a turning point. Lockdowns exposed how quickly the Left abandons liberty. Vaccine mandates revealed how easily “my body, my choice” becomes “comply or else.” The FDA and NIH lost credibility not because skeptics questioned them, but because they behaved like political instruments. The DOJ became a weapon. The media became a joke. Climate change rhetoric escalated from concern to cult.
Wealthy people noticed. Not because they suddenly became populists, but because they understand incentives. When a system tells you that success makes you a target, you do not wait for applause. You leave.
The irony is delicious. The same tech class that lectured flyover country about “stakeholders” and “equity” is now voting with its feet. The same people who cheered open borders and high taxes are quietly relocating to states that reject both. The same donors who funded progressive prosecutors are now moving to places where crime is still prosecuted.
Call it MAGA if you want. Call it realism. Call it survival instinct. Labels matter less than outcomes.
California is becoming a case study in ideological cannibalism. The Left promised compassion and delivered chaos. It promised fairness and delivered favoritism. It promised sustainability and delivered decay. Now the architects of that system are discovering that slogans do not pay bills and moral posturing does not balance budgets.
The state that once attracted dreamers now repels achievers. The place that built fortunes now chases them away. And the governor who presides over it all seems content to watch the credits roll.
Leftism does not fail loudly at first. It fails gradually, then suddenly. It hollows out institutions, erodes trust, and punishes competence until only the compliant remain. California is not unique. It is simply ahead of the curve.
The wealthy leaving are not traitors to the Left. They are proof of it. Proof that an ideology built on resentment cannot sustain prosperity. Proof that you cannot endlessly punish success and expect success to stay. Proof that the revolution always turns inward.
The funniest part is not that they are leaving. It is that anyone is surprised.
