But Mr. Tan’s ardour, as it’s for a rising variety of tech business leaders, is San Francisco politics. He is considered one of a cadre of love-them-or-hate-them tech executives and traders with numerous opinions in regards to the metropolis and countless piles of money to, as they are saying within the tech business, transfer quick and break issues. (Their critics would say it’s extra like they’re attempting to purchase City Hall.)
To a few of San Francisco’s political institution, Mr. Tan, 43, has develop into essentially the most annoying in a parade of rich tech executives. He has created a bombastic on-line persona whereas spending about $400,000 on native politics prior to now few years — with probably much more to come back. And on the social media web site X, the place he has 425,000 followers, Mr. Tan doesn’t simply rub some individuals the mistaken means, he enrages them.
Just after midnight on Jan. 27, he posted on X, previously Twitter, that seven left-leaning members of town’s Board of Supervisors, listed by title, ought to “die slow,” punctuated by an expletive. It was a delicate reference to the rap legend Tupac Shakur’s well-known monitor “Hit ’Em Up,” launched 28 years in the past as an insult to his music rivals. But to some individuals, it gave the impression of a menace.
Mr. Tan was, he admitted when an X follower requested him, drunk.
A number of hours after his submit went up, Mr. Tan deleted it and apologized. But loads of individuals had already seen it.
A few days later, some supervisors obtained nameless letters at their houses bearing Mr. Tan’s face and the phrases: “Garry Tan is right! I wish a slow and painful death for you and your loved ones.” Aaron Peskin, a supervisor who’s contemplating difficult London Breed, the San Francisco mayor, within the November election, was one of some supervisors to file police stories primarily based on Mr. Tan’s submit.