Peter Thiel thinks Trump is a one-term president
Publicly, Silicon Valley's Peter Thiel has sung President Trump's praises and maintained his ardent support. But privately, Trump's biggest Silicon Valley supporter has expressed doubts about how successful Trump will be.
BuzzFeed News reported that the "weekend before the election" — just months after Thiel delivered a sweeping endorsement of Trump at the Republican National Convention — Thiel reportedly admitted in "at least one private conversation" that he thought Trump would "likely be a one-term president" if he won. After Trump did indeed win, the billionaire venture capitalist in January told friends that he thinks there's "a 50 percent chance this whole thing ends in disaster."
Trump's first months in office haven't exactly buoyed Thiel's confidence:
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
At an event in May in San Francisco, he was described by one guest who was in attendance as "annoyed" with the first months of Trump's presidency. With little policy being established by the White House, Thiel worried that the the next four years would be defined by stagnation and stressed the notion that he didn't think Trump would be reelected.In describing the administration, Thiel used one defining word in front of his guests: "incompetent." [BuzzFeed News]
Trump, who has described Thiel as "a very special guy," will likely have something to tweet about that.
Read more at BuzzFeed News.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Will there be peace before Christmas in Ukraine?Today's Big Question Discussions over the weekend could see a unified set of proposals from EU, UK and US to present to Moscow
-
Quiz of The Week: 6 – 12 DecemberQuiz Have you been paying attention to The Week’s news?
-
The week’s best photosIn Pictures A man's best friend, the elephants in the room, and more
-
Democrat files to impeach RFK Jr.Speed Read Rep. Haley Stevens filed articles of impeachment against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
-
$1M ‘Trump Gold Card’ goes live amid travel rule furorSpeed Read The new gold card visa offers an expedited path to citizenship in exchange for $1 million
-
US seizes oil tanker off VenezuelaSpeed Read The seizure was a significant escalation in the pressure campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro
-
Judge orders release of Ghislaine Maxwell recordsSpeed Read The grand jury records from the 2019 prosecution of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein will be made public
-
Miami elects first Democratic mayor in 28 yearsSpeed Read Eileen Higgins, Miami’s first woman mayor, focused on affordability and Trump’s immigration crackdown in her campaign
-
Ex-FBI agents sue Patel over protest firingspeed read The former FBI agents were fired for kneeling during a 2020 racial justice protest for ‘apolitical tactical reasons’
-
Trump unveils $12B bailout for tariff-hit farmersSpeed Read The president continues to insist that his tariff policy is working
-
Trump’s Comey case dealt new setbackspeed read A federal judge ruled that key evidence could not be used in an effort to reindict former FBI Director James Comey