Silicon Valley icon Peter Thiel introduced himself to the rest of America Thursday night.
“I’m proud to be gay, I am proud to be Republican, but most of all I’m proud to be an American,” the billionaire entrepreneur and investor — of PayPal, Palantir and Facebook fame, among other things — said to a standing ovation at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
Thiel, a longtime libertarian and supporter of other Republican politicians, hadn’t said much publicly since the revelation in May that he would be a California delegate for GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump. But during his speech Thursday, he enthusiastically threw his support behind Trump, echoing the candidate’s disdain for the U.S. government and his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.
Thiel wasn’t the first gay person to speak at the RNC — former Rep. Jim Kolbe of Arizona reportedly was the first to do that in 2000 — but he was the first to declare that he’s proud to be gay. After being applauded by the crowd, though, he pushed back against part of the Republican platform.
“Now we are told that the great debate is about who gets to use which bathroom,” he said. “This is a distraction from our real problems. Who cares?”
He added: “I don’t pretend to agree with every plank in our party’s platform. But fake culture wars only distract us from our economic decline.”
But Thiel did hew to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” theme. Thiel talked about how good things used to be and how broken he believes they are now.
“It’s hard to remember this, but our government was once high tech, too,” Thiel said. “When I moved to Cleveland, defense research was laying the foundations for the Internet. The Apollo program was just about to put a man on the moon, and it was Neil Armstrong, from right here in Ohio. The future felt limitless.” Now, he said, “it would be kind to say the government’s software works poorly, because much of the time it doesn’t even work at all.”
Thiel also said he agreed with Trump that “it’s time to end the era of stupid wars and rebuild our country.”
Here’s some Twitter reaction from the tech industry and beyond.
Venture capitalist and former Googler Hunter Walk mentioned the open letter the tech industry published last week, which warned that Trump wouldn’t be good for the country or for innovation:
….so Peter doesn’t speak for me. Doesn’t speak for 150+ of my peers. And doesn’t speak for most of tech community https://t.co/Bc6EmSNjyx
— Hunter Walk (@hunterwalk) July 22, 2016
Thiel mentioned during his speech that he’s a German immigrant who came to the United States at the age of 1. Walk had a comment about that.
….as immigrant, Peter & family had chance to build life in US. Trump wants to close borders & judge people by their country of origin..
— Hunter Walk (@hunterwalk) July 22, 2016
Marc Andressen, venture capitalist/Silicon Valley sage/prolific tweeter, also weighed in:
This is the thing I most don’t understand. Peter really does believe Trump is anti-war. https://t.co/uN53stqD95
— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) July 22, 2016
Andreessen also retweeted the following:
We were promised flying cars, we got libertarians speaking for authoritarians
— modest proposal (@modestproposal1) July 22, 2016
But Thiel had some support from the tech industry, including this entrepreneur.
I applaud Peter Thiel for speaking at the RNC. People like him are at the forefront of modernizing the GOP & should be celebrated.
— Bilal Farooqui (@bilalfarooqui) July 22, 2016
People sometimes forget that if Trump actually becomes President, we *need* him to be surrounded by smart, sane, competent people he trusts
— Bilal Farooqui (@bilalfarooqui) July 22, 2016
Meanwhile, PayPal, which Thiel co-founded in 1998, may be affected by its co-founder’s support of Trump.
Just closed my #PayPal account as co-founder Peter #Thiel supports #Trump. Won’t deal with any business insisting I use @PayPal. Too bad.
— James McArdle (@JamesmMcArdle) July 22, 2016
Photo: Peter Thiel delivers a speech at the Republican National Convention on July 21, 2016 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
The post Peter Thiel at the GOP convention: Reaction from tech and beyond appeared first on SiliconBeat.
