Is Peter Thiel Turning His Back on Donald Trump?
Thiel has no plans to fundraise for the Republican candidate.
In July, billionaire venture capitalist and Gawker bankrupter Peter Thiel took the stage in Cleveland at the Republican National Convention to speak in support of Donald Trump. Thiel serving as a Trump delegate makes sense; the two wealthy capitalists with an authoritarian bend have much in common. They're both litigious—Trump has threatened to sue a number of people, including his ghostwriter, and Thiel bankrolled former wrestler Hulk Hogan's lawsuit against Gawker Media, extracting a $140 million judgment and forcing it to sell to Univision last week. Thiel and Trump also share a distaste for "political correctness" and multiculturalism.
Despite all their similarities, however, it seems Thiel hasn't done much lately to actually support Trump's presidential run. The billionaire PayPal co-founder, arguably Trump's most prominent supporter in Silicon Valley, has no plans to fundraise or donate to Trump's presidential campaign, a spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal. Thiel had previously donated $2 million to a super PAC that funded an early 2016 Republican contender, former Hewlett-Packard chief executive officer Carly Fiorina, but is not known to have given similarly to Trump. In that respect, Thiel is not unlike many conservatives in Silicon Valley. Through June 2016, Hillary Clinton has trounced Trump in fundraising efforts from the tech sector, which has given the former secretary of state $30.7 million to Trump's $300,000, according to an analysis of F.E.C. databy the Center for Responsive Politics.
Other Republicans in tech have been even more wary of throwing support behind Trump, the Wall Street Journal reports. Oracle founder Larry Ellison, who gave $5 million to Marco Rubio in 2012 and $3 million to Mitt Romney, has yet to donate to the 2016 G.O.P. nominee. Intel C.E.O. Brian Krzanich cancelled a fundraiser he planned to host for Trump earlier this year after the event was reported on by The New York Times, and now Krzanich says he plans not to endorse either presidential candidate. Trump also hasn't done much outreach to the tech community; in June, Clinton laid out a veritable love letter of a tech policy plan filled with promises of investments in high-speed Internet and computer-science education, but Trump has done no such thing, instead choosing to focus on attacking tech companies. He called for a boycott of Apple products earlier this year in light of the company's public battle with the F.B.I., and his surrogates have attacked Mark Zuckerberg after the Facebook C.E.O. criticized the candidate's immigration plan.