Noted Billionaire Trump Supporter ‘More Hopeful’ About Second Term After Vance Pick
The relationship between billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel and former President Donald Trump may have improved after Trump selected Thiel’s preferred choice, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), as his running mate.
Tensions between Trump and Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal, arose in 2023 when Thiel declined to support Trump’s reelection campaign. However, in a New York Times interview, Thiel expressed renewed “hopefulness” for a second Trump term following Vance’s selection.
“I always try to resist getting swept up in excitement,” Thiel, who previously employed and mentored 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.”
The Times noted that Thiel and other notable Silicon Valley figures had hoped Trump would choose Vance.
During the 2022 midterm elections, Thiel supported his former employees Vance and Blake Masters, the latter of whom ran an unsuccessful Senate campaign in Arizona. Thiel invested $35 million in the election cycle but has since indicated a desire to step back from partisan politics. He donated $1 million to Trump’s first presidential campaign in 2016 but made no contributions in 2020 and has not donated to Trump’s 2024 campaign. Thiel reportedly felt the Trump administration did not fulfill some key campaign promises.
According to the New York Times, Vance’s vice-presidential nomination suggests that the Trump campaign is paying close attention to major donors like Thiel. Vance also garnered support from other Silicon Valley mega-donors, including tech entrepreneur David Sacks and Palantir adviser Jacob Helberg, as well as from Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr.
Despite introducing Vance to Trump at the beginning of 2021, Thiel has stated he will not donate to any super PACs.
“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 added.
Some critics have suggested Trump should reconsider his choice for vice president, but renowned pollster Frank Luntz, known for his anti-Trump stance, disagreed. In a recent CNN segment, Luntz emphasized Vance’s appeal to a crucial segment of the electorate.
“He chose to double down. And J.D. Vance comes from the background that Trump’s focusing on, so he’s credible. And he’s got the language because this is how he grew up,” Luntz said. “To me, the most important segment of the population, the one that makes or breaks, are these paycheck-to-paycheck voters, people who have jobs, they’ve been working, they may not be college graduates, and they’re struggling. And it represents one-fourth of the American electorate. Normally, they vote Democrat over Republican by about two to one. Trump brought it to three to two, even closer. That segment, if they break for Harris, she’s the next president. If Trump can keep them, he’s the next president.”
“J.D. Vance appeals to them because … it’s who he was. It’s not a segment we talk about. It’s not a segment we see. I get them in focus groups because I go out to these states, but they are really suffering,” Luntz continued. “The economy is not doing well for them. These are not shareholders, these are not people who have a cushion. If they get fired or one check doesn’t work, they could lose their homes. They could lose their cars. And we are very sympathetic towards them as a country. Watch because I think that’s going to be the focus going forward.”