It turns out that billionaire Trump backer Peter Thiel's public support for the president is not all that it seems. According to a piece by BuzzFeed News that relies on statements from several close friends and associates who remain anonymous, Thiel has had his doubts about Trump dating back well into last year, and he's said so in private gatherings. But he threw in his support because he believed Trump would be better for tax policy, and because he thought he could reap some rewards for getting in at the ground level of a fledgling, anti-establishment administration.
According to two people present at a New Year's gathering of friends at Thiel's home in Maui, Thiel allegedly said, shortly before the inauguration, "There is a 50% chance this whole thing ends in disaster," and he's apparently been more pointed in his criticisms of the president since then.
Friends say that he privately admitted, just before the November election, that he was not confident in either Trump or Hillary Clinton, that he believed both would likely be one-term presidents, and that he thought Clinton would be a disaster for both trade and tax policy.
So far this year, however, Thiel has reportedly been increasingly less enthusiastic about the Trump Administration, with one person saying Thiel seemed "annoyed" with the lack of progress they'd made in talking during an event in May. He allegedly summed up his thoughts on the administration saying they were "incompetent."
Nonetheless, Thiel publicly told Trump at a White House event in June that he was off to "a terrific start," and BuzzFeed wonders aloud what Trump will now think of his closest ally in Silicon Valley now that these statements of doubt and disloyalty are public.
When asked to confirm or deny any of the above statements, Thiel issued a statement to BuzzFeed through a spokesperson saying, "The night he won the election, I said President Trump would face an awesomely difficult task. Today it's clear that resistance to change in Washington, D.C. has been even fiercer than I anticipated. We still need change. I support President Trump in his ongoing fight to achieve it."
