Greetings from San Francisco, and welcome back to Puck.

Today, a potpourri of news from across the world of political and philanthropic fundraising: Inside dish on whether Melinda French Gates will walk from the Gates Foundation over Bill’s association with Jeffrey Epstein; Joe Lonsdale’s email to friends (with bundler code!) about Ron DeSantis; and intel about Joe Biden’s years-in-the-making swing to the Bay Area, his first since 2019.

But first…

• Scott’s ’24 Swing: Tim Scott is scheduled to make his first fundraising trip through the Bay Area on June 15, according to a save-the-date. One expected host, I’m told, is John Underwood, a Goldman Sachs wealth manager who played a role in the federal response to the Silicon Valley Bank crisis. Underwood doesn’t write huge checks, but he is a reliable host, and he’ll play the part during a reception and dinner in Woodside. Scott will also do a luncheon in San Francisco. I’m told other folks raising money in the Bay for Scott include Greg Wendt, a friend, fundraiser and pallbearer for John McCain, and Frank Lavin, a former Bush administration official. “Glad to support a candidate who is upbeat and inclusive,” Lavin told me. Both Lavin and Wendt publicly backed Hillary Clinton over Trump in 2016—a sign of how Scott is bringing traditional Republicans back into the fold.

It was with that grave responsibility that the Gates Foundation announced on July 7, 2021, that America’s most powerful philanthropic couple had pledged to strive to continue working together. But, the statement continued, if their partnership proved too awkward after two years, Melinda could resign as a co-chair and trustee of the Foundation, and receive some unidentified amount of “personal resources” to pursue her own philanthropic work elsewhere. Notably, according to the plan, the dissolution can be triggered by either party.

Of course, it hasn’t gone unnoticed in Gates World that we are now just over one month away from that two-year anniversary. Especially now that Epstein, allegedly the proximate cause of Bill and Melinda’s breakup, is back in the news. The Wall Street Journal has been all over the Gates-Epstein connection lately—reporting on Epstein threatening Gates over an affair, and days during which Gates and Epstein allegedly roamed New York, inseparable—and every new disclosure seems to confirm that Melinda was correct to be concerned about both her husband’s infidelity and his associations with a convicted sex offender. (Bill has said spending any time with Epstein was a mistake.) In other words: If Melinda is looking for an excuse to pull the ripcord and start anew, she has one.

I don’t think she will, though. Melinda and Gates Foundation C.E.O. Mark Suzman have said since the very beginning that they expected for nothing to change—Melinda remains just as involved with Gates Foundation work as she was before the divorce, I hear. Nevertheless, the escape hatch was put into place for a reason—“to ensure the continuity of the foundation’s work.” That proviso was part of a broader governance-reform package, yes, but one that wasn’t included by accident. I’ve talked with some Gates folks who have privately predicted that Melinda would likely split, but, officially, it ain’t happening. “Melinda and Bill’s long-term commitment is being demonstrated every day in the way they work as active co-chairs of our board, jointly make major strategic decisions, and represent the foundation externally,” Suzman told me in a statement. “Melinda believes deeply in the foundation and remains fully committed as co-chair to its work,” a Melinda representative told me. In other words: On the eve of the deadline, don’t expect news.

Melinda does have her own priorities, which are increasingly separate from Bill’s—in particular, support for women and girls around the globe. And she does have her own philanthropy and investment shop at Pivotal Ventures, backed by the $11 billion or so that she is estimated to have in personal resources. But would she really walk away from an organization she spent three decades building, with an unmatched, global footprint? Especially one that would take many years, and far more resources than she has, even with a big payout, to rebuild? Setting aside Epstein, and his stain on their organization, perhaps Melinda believes she can accomplish more for women as part of her giant, 1,700-person strong foundation than she would on her own.

While Melinda can split as early as July 7, the two-year deadline is not a one-time, use-it-or-lose-it trigger. Their philanthropic marriage can dissolve at any time after the clock strikes midnight on that date. The first window that insiders will get into all of this will be at the upcoming Giving Pledge confab—the Foundation’s annual get-together for other billionaires, focused this year in part on their heirs, or “next gen”—that is as much a showcase of the Bill-and-Melinda partnership as it is about anything else. Indeed, Bill and Melinda have long talked about their third kid—their own “next gen,” so to speak—being the Foundation itself.

Lonsdale considered a number of candidates, including Nikki Haley, whom he has also hosted at his home. But Lonsdale was apparently convinced that DeSantis was serious about “confronting the broken administrative state in D.C., which has become both a drain on our economy and a threat to our freedoms,” according to the email. “Tayler and I are passionate about this complex issue,” he continued, “and his strategy and plans to fix D.C.’s unaccountable regulatory mess are far ahead of his rivals.”

Lonsdale, a venture capitalist and one of the founders of Palantir, is a big get for DeSantis, with tons of connections across tech and politics, including Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. No, Lonsdale himself doesn’t have Elon- or Thiel-level wealth. But he has an excellent rolodex of business leaders in Texas and Silicon Valley who see him as a next-gen policy mind (even if some others in the industry find him a little arrogant). Like David Sacks, Lonsdale is an influencer in his world: He has hosted a series of dinners in Austin to market his ideas to other center-right, young leaders in the state’s business communities, many of whom are likely to follow him onto the DeSantis team.

Lonsdale is also expected to be involved with a fundraising event held by DeSantis in the Bay Area on June 19 (although he won’t be the actual host). And yes, he attached a link with an attribution code in his email—he’ll be officially bundling money for the DeSantis team, and will happily take credit for its delivery. “We are asking that you and your spouse consider joining us and donating the combined federal maximum,” they wrote. “Tayler and I are giving $6,600 each, but any amount you can give at this link would be deeply appreciated.”

There’s two ways to look at that: On the one hand, Biden probably should’ve visited earlier. On the other hand, there’s well into seven figures of money that Biden should be able to collect on this quick swing. Easy pickings.

The Biden trip is tentatively slated for late June, probably around June 20, after much delay and logistical back-and-forth. Exact dates, hosts and locations have not been set in stone, but there will probably be some events in San Francisco, some in Marin County, and some in the South Bay. At least one Democratic mega-donor, Reid Hoffman, will be involved as a host on this fundraising swing, I hear.

It will be a busy week on the Bay Area fundraising scene. Tim Scott will also be in town a few days earlier, on the 15th, and Nancy Pelosi and Hakeem Jeffries will be at the home of Sandi and John Thompson a few days later, on the 24th, for a D.C.C.C. event. This isn’t coincidental—June 30 is the end of the second quarter, and it’ll be a big test for everyone.