Peter Thiel

Political Ideology

Nationalist Authoritarianism

• Follower of Curtis Yarvin, who wants to abolish democracy and the Constitution to create a CEO-in-Chief to “sell off public schools, destroy universities, abolish the press, and imprison ‘decivilized populations.’”
• In his 2014 book Zero to One, declared monarchy to be the best form of government
• His biographer claims that Thiel’s views are now “closer to authoritarianism…super-nationalistic, it’s a longing for a sort of more powerful chief executive…a dictator, in other words”

Controversies

• Co-wrote a book in 1998 that attacked diversity initiatives including courses in ethnic, gender, and sexuality as “anti-Western” and cast doubt on the validity of date rape, claiming it was primarily about “vilifying men”
  • Later apologized for his date rape statements in 2016
• Wrote a blog post stating he “no longer believe(s) that freedom and democracy are compatible”
• Secretly bankrolled Hulk Hogan’s successful lawsuit against Gawker Media in response to the publication outing him as gay, leading to Gawker’s bankruptcy and First Amendment concerns
• Exploited retirement account loophole to avoid taxes on $5 billion of his wealth

Obscene Spending

• Five properties purchased for $74.5 million, including a $18 million compound on Venetian Islands in Miami Beach, two homes in Los Angeles, a $27 million Hawaiian property on Maui, and a lavish mansion in the Woodland-Normanstone area of Washington, D.C.
• Also owns a $4.8 million house in New Zealand, where he was granted citizenship despite failing the standard requirements

Enabling:

Deportation Industrial Complex

Peter Thiel is the co-founder and chairman of Palantir, which has long been the corporate backbone of ICE’s immigrant surveillance and disappearance apparatus. The surveillance tech company, which Thiel owns a $15 billion stake in, provides the agency with key surveillance software to analyze massive amounts of personal data — phone numbers, addresses, financial information, social media profiles — to track and locate their targets. Without Palantir’s technology, ICE would not be able to find, detain, and deport as many people as they currently do.

Palantir’s role has only expanded under Trump and Vance. In April 2025, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) awarded Palantir an additional $30 million to build ImmigrationOS, a new deportation surveillance platform that will use near real-time data to locate individuals for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, the division responsible for raids, detention and deportations.

Trump Administration

Peter Thiel was the first Silicon Valley billionaire to support Donald Trump, donating over $1 million to Trump and serving on his transition team in 2016. In 2021, he introduced his then-employee and protégé JD Vance to Donald Trump, and then donated $15 million of his own money to help Vance win a Senate seat in Ohio - the largest amount ever given to boost a single Senate candidate. Over a dozen of Thiel’s former employees and allies play key roles in the Trump/Vance administration, and his companies are now embedded in government agencies including the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense. As the Trump/Vance administration moves ahead with expanding the surveillance state, it is Thiel companies like Palantir that have been tapped to create a centralized database of Americans’ personal information, raising serious concerns about civil liberties and democratic oversight.