Billionaire Peter Thiel confirmed reports that he is not donating to any Republican candidates in 2024 and said his vote for former President Donald Trump in 2016 was a “scream for help.”
“Voting for Trump was like a not very articulate scream for help,” Thiel, who endorsed Trump in 2016 told The Atlantic.
He added that things went differently than what he had hoped when he donated more than $1 million to the Trump campaign in 2016.
“There are a lot of things I got wrong,” he said. “It was crazier than I thought. It was more dangerous than I thought. They couldn’t get the most basic pieces of the government to work. So that was—I think that part was maybe worse than even my low expectations.”
Thiel now says he is taking a step back from political donations in 2024 and relayed that message to Trump when be called earlier this year seeking a $10 million donation—the same amount Thiel gave to Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) and failed Arizona senate candidate Blake Masters when they were campaigning for office.
He told The Atlantic that Trump’s response at the time was that “he was very sad, very sad to hear that”.
Thiel later learned that Trump had called him a “fucking scumbag” in conversations with Masters.
