Billionaire MAGA Fan Peter Thiel Has Had It With Trump’s COVID-19 Response
https://www.thedailybeast.com/billi...hiel-has-had-it-with-trumps-covid-19-response
During the last presidential campaign, Facebook board member and billionaire Peter Thiel was among Donald Trump’s most important backers, campaigning for the future president as a “proud,” openly gay supporter of the Republican nominee and even speaking at the Republican Party’s 2016 convention. Four years later, Thiel has taken on a dramatically reduced—if not altogether nonexistent—role in pushing for Trump 2020.
Though Thiel declared a year and a half ago that he supports Trump’s re-election, he so far hasn't donated large sums to any of the major Trump campaign committees, and it is unclear to various Trump lieutenants if those contributions are forthcoming. Top officials in the president’s political orbit say that Thiel has been absent from 2020 discussions, with one proclaiming the famous investor had “ghosted” Team Trump lately. And several people familiar with the situation say he has privately criticized Trump in recent months and contemplated limiting his support to other GOP or conservative-nationalist politicians such as Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, to whom he donated the legal maximum of $5,400 in 2017.
Thiel’s cold front has come as the data-mining firm that he co-founded has been raking it in from federal contracts with the Trump administration, including a recent deal to help build what the government hoped would be “the single source” for data to understand and mitigate the effects of the coronavirus. But, as it were, sources say the heart of Thiel’s disaffection with the president is Trump’s handling of the coronavirus crisis.
One person in Thiel’s circle tells The Daily Beast that Thiel has been “shit-talking” Trump over what he views as the president’s hamfisted and botched handling of the pandemic that has resulted in a stalled economy, massive job losses, and a U.S. death toll approaching 90,000. Another person familiar with Thiel’s recent griping said that Thiel was “clearly very frustrated” with the president’s uneven public appearances, particularly the daily White House press briefings Trump held that often ended in head-scratching pronouncements or politically disastrous boasts.
In that regard, Thiel was hardly alone. Trump’s briefings got so bad that his own most senior advisers were urging him to cut down on them, arguing to him directly that these hours-long briefings were tanking his poll numbers and handing a gift to Team Biden. But for a once-declared MAGA diehard to feel this way underscores the degree of self-inflicted damage Trump may have done.
“Everybody goes into the Trump relationship woodchipper,” said Trump’s former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci, who worked on the Trump presidential transition team with Thiel and who had his own falling-out with the president. “You either come out on the other side with your dignity and your personal story intact or you’re reformed as Trump compost and you’re fertilizer under his shoe. You have to make a decision and it happens to everyone.”
The Daily Beast asked more than a dozen Trump campaign officials, White House aides, and others close to the president and involved in his re-election effort if Thiel had been quietly working with Team Trump on anything 2020 or campaign cash-related, if there had been any meaningful contact in the past three months, or if Thiel had come up in any planning conversations, even in passing. None could offer any examples, and each said they weren’t aware of anything of that nature.
“He ghosted us,” a senior 2020 Trump campaign source said bluntly. “If anything [new] has happened, I haven’t heard about it.”
The White House and Trump campaign did not provide comment. The Daily Beast emailed Thiel and his representative a detailed list of questions and gave them multiple opportunities to comment. They did not respond, though in this case, the money—or lack thereof—may tell the story.
Though a major financial supporter of Trump and other Republican politicians in the past, Thiel has donated nothing to the president’s re-election campaign or the Republican National Committee since 2018, according to the most recent available Federal Election Commission data. He’s donated to just one federal political candidate since last year: former Kansas secretary of state and Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kris Kobach, an anti-immigration hardliner and Trump buddy. Thiel has also backed a super PAC supporting Kobach’s Senate bid, and last year chipped in $5,000 for Facebook’s political action committee.
May of an election year is, historically, when Thiel begins to truly open up his wallet to the political candidates he supports, suggesting that FEC filings covering the second quarter of 2020, which will be filed in July, might show new beneficiaries of his support, including Trump. Thiel began donating to Trump’s 2016 campaign in July of that year. But he also continued providing financial support to the Trump re-elect through the midterm election season, with his last donation to the president coming on July 10, 2018.
To those who know the tech investor, his softening on his pro-Trump position doesn’t come as a shock, as he is known to be mercurial with his support for political figures, according to two people familiar with Thiel’s public relations and personal calculus.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/billi...hiel-has-had-it-with-trumps-covid-19-response
During the last presidential campaign, Facebook board member and billionaire Peter Thiel was among Donald Trump’s most important backers, campaigning for the future president as a “proud,” openly gay supporter of the Republican nominee and even speaking at the Republican Party’s 2016 convention. Four years later, Thiel has taken on a dramatically reduced—if not altogether nonexistent—role in pushing for Trump 2020.
Though Thiel declared a year and a half ago that he supports Trump’s re-election, he so far hasn't donated large sums to any of the major Trump campaign committees, and it is unclear to various Trump lieutenants if those contributions are forthcoming. Top officials in the president’s political orbit say that Thiel has been absent from 2020 discussions, with one proclaiming the famous investor had “ghosted” Team Trump lately. And several people familiar with the situation say he has privately criticized Trump in recent months and contemplated limiting his support to other GOP or conservative-nationalist politicians such as Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, to whom he donated the legal maximum of $5,400 in 2017.
Thiel’s cold front has come as the data-mining firm that he co-founded has been raking it in from federal contracts with the Trump administration, including a recent deal to help build what the government hoped would be “the single source” for data to understand and mitigate the effects of the coronavirus. But, as it were, sources say the heart of Thiel’s disaffection with the president is Trump’s handling of the coronavirus crisis.
One person in Thiel’s circle tells The Daily Beast that Thiel has been “shit-talking” Trump over what he views as the president’s hamfisted and botched handling of the pandemic that has resulted in a stalled economy, massive job losses, and a U.S. death toll approaching 90,000. Another person familiar with Thiel’s recent griping said that Thiel was “clearly very frustrated” with the president’s uneven public appearances, particularly the daily White House press briefings Trump held that often ended in head-scratching pronouncements or politically disastrous boasts.
In that regard, Thiel was hardly alone. Trump’s briefings got so bad that his own most senior advisers were urging him to cut down on them, arguing to him directly that these hours-long briefings were tanking his poll numbers and handing a gift to Team Biden. But for a once-declared MAGA diehard to feel this way underscores the degree of self-inflicted damage Trump may have done.
“Everybody goes into the Trump relationship woodchipper,” said Trump’s former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci, who worked on the Trump presidential transition team with Thiel and who had his own falling-out with the president. “You either come out on the other side with your dignity and your personal story intact or you’re reformed as Trump compost and you’re fertilizer under his shoe. You have to make a decision and it happens to everyone.”
The Daily Beast asked more than a dozen Trump campaign officials, White House aides, and others close to the president and involved in his re-election effort if Thiel had been quietly working with Team Trump on anything 2020 or campaign cash-related, if there had been any meaningful contact in the past three months, or if Thiel had come up in any planning conversations, even in passing. None could offer any examples, and each said they weren’t aware of anything of that nature.
“He ghosted us,” a senior 2020 Trump campaign source said bluntly. “If anything [new] has happened, I haven’t heard about it.”
The White House and Trump campaign did not provide comment. The Daily Beast emailed Thiel and his representative a detailed list of questions and gave them multiple opportunities to comment. They did not respond, though in this case, the money—or lack thereof—may tell the story.
Though a major financial supporter of Trump and other Republican politicians in the past, Thiel has donated nothing to the president’s re-election campaign or the Republican National Committee since 2018, according to the most recent available Federal Election Commission data. He’s donated to just one federal political candidate since last year: former Kansas secretary of state and Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kris Kobach, an anti-immigration hardliner and Trump buddy. Thiel has also backed a super PAC supporting Kobach’s Senate bid, and last year chipped in $5,000 for Facebook’s political action committee.
May of an election year is, historically, when Thiel begins to truly open up his wallet to the political candidates he supports, suggesting that FEC filings covering the second quarter of 2020, which will be filed in July, might show new beneficiaries of his support, including Trump. Thiel began donating to Trump’s 2016 campaign in July of that year. But he also continued providing financial support to the Trump re-elect through the midterm election season, with his last donation to the president coming on July 10, 2018.
To those who know the tech investor, his softening on his pro-Trump position doesn’t come as a shock, as he is known to be mercurial with his support for political figures, according to two people familiar with Thiel’s public relations and personal calculus.
