Peter Thiel Dined With White Nationalist While Supporting Trump Campaign (Report)
Facebook board member and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel met with prominent white nationalist Kevin DeAnna in 2016, while publicly campaigning for and donating to Donald Trump, according to a report from BuzzFeed News.
DeAnna and Thiel had dinner together in July 2016, according to BuzzFeed News, and Thiel emailed the next day saying, “Kevin – really enjoyed meeting you last night. I may be in DC towards the end of September, and let me know [if you] make it to SF anytime!”
Also in July 2016, Thiel spoke at the Republican National Convention in support of Trump, who received the party’s nomination and ultimately won the presidency in November of that year.
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As BuzzFeed News points out, DeAnna was already involved in far-right politics for about a decade when he met with Thiel. He “played a key role in channeling white nationalist ideology into the emerging alt-right,” according to the report.
In 2017, BuzzFeed News also reported the tech investment kingpin had been referring to the current administration as “incompetent,” in spite of being one of the few Silicon Valley titans to publicly support the president.
Regarding the Trump White House, Thiel said to a friend in January, according to the report: “There is a 50 percent chance this whole thing ends in disaster.”
Representatives for Thiel and Facebook didn’t immediately return TheWrap’s requests for comment Friday.
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