Trump will be a lame duck soon, and it's likely that the next president will be far less extreme. Some sense of American normalcy will likely return relatively soon.
I'm not reading too much into it. SF Bay Area is still the startup HQ of the world. Gary probably just wanted to hire this guy despite his desire to live in Cambridge. Plus YC is leaning harder into their preference for college-age founders, so having a partner next to Harvard&MIT doesn't hurt.