Between purchasing real estate in Argentina, helping to run Palantir, and giving closed lectures about the rise of the Antichrist, tech mogul Peter Thiel has come out strongly against the Iran War.
This is significant because Thiel was one of Trump’s earliest and most influential supporters in Silicon Valley.
President Donald Trump signs an Executive Order on the Administration’s tariff plans at a “Make America Wealthy Again” event, Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in the White House Rose Garden. (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok)
President Donald Trump greets President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, Friday, February 28, 2025, in the West Wing Lobby. (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok)
He also mentored current Vice President JD Vance, and many believe he and Vance remain close.
A Not-So-Secret Recording
Thiel made his remarks at a private event in Nashville earlier this month.
But POLITICO published a secret recording of the talk.
Thiel expressed skepticism about the war and explicitly stated that “We should not have done it.”
He further criticized the war, saying US officials, whom he did not name, had made multiple mistakes in conducting it.
Then the conversation turned to a direction Thiel, as someone intimately involved in the defense sector via Palantir, understands.
According to the tech mogul, he worried that the United States lacked sufficient military capabilities to accomplish its objectives in the Iran War.
What’s more, he cautioned that Washington might lose the struggle for international influence.
Why This Matters
Peter Thiel is more than just a guy who is involved with a major defense technology firm.
He was the co-founder of PayPal, a member of the eponymously named “PayPal Mafia,” a group of tech titans who all got their start in the startup that ruled the 1990s and early 2000s in terms of creating the online payment structure that we all take for granted today.
He also runs a major investment firm called the Founders Fund.
Thiel was the first major Silicon Valley investor to back Donald Trump’s 2016 White House bid.
He even delivered a major Floor speech at that year’s Republican National Convention.
This was a shocking moment in the realm of GOP politics, because Thiel was both a Silicon Valley baron (most of whom are dyed-in-the-wool Liberal Democrats) and gay.
Thiel continued his involvement in GOP politics, backing candidates with large investments and, as with the current vice president, elevating certain politicians to key leadership roles in the party.
In 2022, Peter Thiel was the largest financial supporter backing JD Vance’s successful Senate campaign in Ohio.
As POLITICO reported earlier this year, Vance has been skeptical of the Iran War since before the president authorized it.
Indeed, Vance has a long track record of opposing wars.
As a senator, he opposed US military involvement and support of Ukraine in its war with Russia.
Once he became vice president, Vance helped to end the US naval war on the Houthis in Yemen at the start of the Trump administration’s non-consecutive second term.
Now, Vance (and Thiel’s network) support a Trump-led GOP that has initiated a war of choice that none of the Thiel-affiliated people support.
Still, Thiel could have gone farther to make his disapproval of the war known.
He walked a fine line to avoid clearly breaking with the president.
Instead, he drew an equivocal, painfully nuanced distinction between military strength and international political influence.
Despite his comments about readiness, Thiel did not dive deeper into that important topic in his secretly recorded remarks in Nashville.
So, his comments were clearly a broader concern about the war’s efficacy rather than a specific assessment of the (many) shortcomings of the war.
Part of a Wider Criticism
Thiel further criticized neoconservative foreign policy in his remarks and hectored their past support for irresponsible wars of choice in the Middle East (notably Iraq).
Thiel then raised the ongoing controversy over the International Criminal Court (ICC) and what he saw as the potential legal vulnerability of US political leaders who engage in military operations.
The Silicon Valley tech leader fears that international legal institutions could soon threaten Trump administration officials over their conduct of the Iran War.
The ICC prosecutes individuals accused of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and aggression under its jurisdiction.
The US is not a party to the Rome Statute that established the court.
So, Thiel’s criticisms of the ICC connect to his broader concerns about the negative implications of US military interventionism abroad.
Walking a Fine Line
While Thiel stopped short of fully breaking from Trump, he clearly harbors grave concerns about the future of the “MAGA” movement he helped fund.
The Iran War has become the Trump administration’s prevailing policy issue, subsuming other foreign and domestic concerns.
Military operations continue in the Middle East, and negotiations have repeatedly failed to produce an end to this most unpopular war.
Still, one of Trump’s most important financial backers clearly doubts the utility of Trump’s policies (given his February 28 decision to go to war has jeopardized the entire political movement Thiel helped fund since 2016).
About the Author: Brandon J. Weichert
Brandon J. Weichert is the Senior National Security Editor at 19FortyFive.com. He also manages The Weichert Brief on Substack. Weichert is the co-host for The Mario Nawfal Show on Twitter/X. He is the author of four bestselling national security books, most recently A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine (Encounter Books). His next book, Fortress Americas: A New Monroe Doctrine (Tucker Carlson Books), is due out December 8. Follow him via Twitter/X @WeTheBrandon.
