By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 25th, 2024
The billionaire investor who supported Donald Trump as a candidate for US presidency will have his ear on tech issues.
While the bitcoin society is speculating what impact Donald Trump’s presidency can have on the cryptocurrency market, the new president is taking first steps. It has been announced that Peter Thiel, the billionaire investor at odds with much of Silicon Valley, will join Donald Trump’s transition team. However, now Thiel is traveling outside the country prompting to question his role in the transition team.
Thiel underlined that he is not going to move to Washington. He is unlikely to have a formal role. He just prefers to have a voice while still not to follow his youthful dream of joining the United States Supreme Court.
“A page in the book of history has turned, and there is an opening to think about some of our problems from a new perspective,” he said. “I’ll try to help the president in any way I can.”
Thiel, 49, was one of the few tech industry executives who supported Donald Trump as a candidate for American presidency. Reportedly, he will deal with vetting presidential appointments and selecting which of Trump’s campaign promises will become the policies. There have not been revealed many details about his new role.
Thiel admitted that he not only spoke out for Mr. Trump and gave him money, but voted for him.
“I did vote,” he said. “I don’t always vote, but I thought you might ask, so I did.”
It is known that Thiel opposed foreign wars, high debt and inefficient spending on defense, trade, health care and student debt. It is highly possible that Thiel will put government waste on the top of priority.
Thiel’s support of Donald Trump often embarrassed left-leaning Silicon Valley. The co-founder of PayPal who backs around 200 startups through his Founders Fund and Mithril Capital approved of the candidate who intends to restrict immigration and makes conflicting comments about women and minorities. It is not a secret that the tech community, that Thiel is involved in, relies considerably on foreign-born workers and has made diversity a major priority in recent years.
“His odds were very badly underestimated,” Thiel said ofDonald Trump. “Trump voters were not being captured by the polls. A lot of the dynamics were very similar to the Brexit vote in the U.K.,” which also took many commentators by surprise.
Thiel commented on the perspectives of tech community: “It’s important for it to be able to work with the rest of the country and the world. At the end of the day, it would be crazy to simply spend four years issuing denunciatory tweets on Twitter. For a day or two, that’s fine. But I hope Silicon Valley will be more productive than that.”