Billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel’s relationship with former President Donald Trump could be on the mend after Trump picked Thiel’s top choice to be his running mate.
Trump and Thiel’s relationship soured in 2023 after Thiel refused to support Trump’s campaign for reelection. However, in an interview with the New York Times, Thiel, for the first time since Sen. J.D.Vance (R-OH) was tapped to be Trump’s running mate, expressed he was more “hopeful” for a second Trump term than he was before.
“I always try to resist getting swept up in excitement,” Thiel, a former employer and mentor of Vance, told the New York Times. “But in spite of many misgivings I had earlier this year, it makes me more hopeful that a second Trump term will be better than the first.”
Thiel and others in Silicon Valley were reportedly hoping that Vance would be Trump’s vice presidential pick.
During the 2022 midterm elections, Thiel supported his former employees Vance and Blake Masters, who ran an unsuccessful Senate campaign in Arizona. Thiel spent a combined $35 million that election year, but has since indicated that he looks to roll back being so involved with partisan politics.
He donated $1 million to Trump’s first presidential campaign in 2016, but didn’t donate anything in 2020 and has not donated anything yet in 2024 for Trump’s third campaign. Thiel had reportedly been disappointed in the Trump administration, believing they fell through on some campaign promises while in office.
According to the New York Times, however, Vance’s nomination for vice president indicates that the Trump campaign could be keeping a close eye on mega-donors like Thiel. Vance had the backing of other Silicon Valley mega-donors like tech entrepreneur David Sacks and Palantir adviser Jacob Helberg, as well as Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr.
Still, while Thiel introduced Vance to Trump at the beginning of 2021, the pick may not be enough for Thiel to open his wallet.
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“I went on record saying I would not give money to super PACs, and I still feel I have to stick with that,” he said.
“I think it’s going to be very different from 2016 or 2020. I don’t think the election is going to be close. I think Trump and JD will crush the election by a solid margin — 4 percent or 5 percent of the popular vote. And it doesn’t matter what I do. It doesn’t matter what Democrat donors do,” Thiel continued.
