Peter Thiel may be getting off the Trump train
Billionaire investor Peter Thiel has been one of the loudest Donald Trump supporters in Silicon Valley.
But according to a recent report from BuzzFeed News, his support for the president may be wavering.
At a May event in San Francisco, Thiel reportedly used one word to describe the new administration: "incompetent."
"There's a 50% chance this whole things ends in disaster," Thiel told a private gathering of friends in January, according to the BuzzFeed News report.
The comments are a change in tone for Thiel, who had been a dogged Trump supporter. He first tied himself to the then candidate in May of last year, when he was chosen as California's delegate for the Republican National Convention.
During a speech to the convention, he urged voters to back Trump. He also donated $1.25 million to the campaign, and served on Trump's transition team after his election, helping appoint people to the White House's science and tech teams.
Thiel has long been known as a contrarian in largely liberal Silicon Valley. After co-founding PayPal and leading it through a successful initial public offering and sale to eBay, he made a name for himself as an investor, successfully placing early winning bets on companies like Facebook and SpaceX.
When contacted by BuzzFeed News, Thiel, through a spokesperson, did not deny the quotes his friends told the outlet he made. But he said he continued to support the president.
"The night he won the election, I said President Trump would face an awesomely difficult task," Thiel told BuzzFeed News in a statement. "Today it's clear that resistance to change in Washington, D.C. has been even fiercer than I anticipated. We still need change. I support President Trump in his ongoing fight to achieve it.”
You can read the whole BuzzFeed News report here.
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