Peter Thiel, the tech billionaire and Republican megadonor, has reportedly told associates that he will not be making any political donations in 2024. Thiel, who was an early supporter of former President Donald Trump before breaking with him, is said to be unhappy with the Republican Party’s focus on hot-button cultural issues such as abortion and transgender student bathroom restrictions. Instead, Thiel believes that Republicans should be more focused on spurring innovation and competing with China.
Thiel’s plans for the 2024 Republican primary and general election have not been previously reported. While he previously spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention, expressing hope that the party would concentrate on economic issues, Thiel’s business associate claims that he now sees culture wars as a distraction from the country’s economic decline.
Thiel’s decision to step back from U.S. politics underscores how the Republican Party’s swing to the right on social issues is alienating some prominent, business-minded donors. Several top donors have expressed hesitation about supporting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is expected to announce a run for the White House soon, after he signed a bill into law that bans most abortions after six weeks in Florida. However, none have claimed that they intend to sit out the entire 2024 election cycle as a consequence.
Thiel, who identifies as a supporter of libertarianism, a political philosophy that stresses the importance of individual freedoms, has a fortune estimated at around $4.2 billion after co-founding PayPal and Palantir and investing early in Facebook. He has contributed around $50 million to state and federal political candidates and campaigns since 2000, and he was the 10th largest individual donor to either party in the 2022 midterm congressional elections.
While Thiel may yet change his mind on political contributions for the 2024 cycle, both sources familiar with his donation plans have said that they have heard Thiel declare on multiple recent occasions that he has withdrawn from U.S. politics. Thiel’s decision may also be influenced by concerns about his family’s safety, according to a source who knows him personally.
In the 2022 election cycle, Thiel emerged as a potential Republican kingmaker, contributing more than $35 million to 16 federal-level Republican candidates. While he did not financially back Trump’s re-election efforts in 2020, Thiel liked some of Trump’s policies while in office but disapproved of the chaos surrounding the former reality TV star’s presidency.
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