Peter Thiel, the billionaire technology investor seen as one of President Donald Trump's key backers, has expressed skepticism about the war in Iran, deepening Republican anxiety ahead of the midterm elections as even a core supporter turns away from a signature foreign policy of Trump's second term.
According to a recording obtained by Politico and reported on the 21st, Thiel said at a private event on the 12th that he was skeptical of the war and believed it should not have been started, adding that there had been many mistakes.
He also said the United States may not have enough military power and could lose the competition in soft power as well.
Thiel's remarks are likely to reverberate with two weeks left before the midterm elections. Politico described them as a leading example of deep concern about the Iran war from within Trump's circle of strong allies. Thiel also has close ties to Vice President JD Vance. He was the largest donor to a super PAC, or political action committee, that supported Vance's Senate campaign in 2022. Until the Iran war broke out this year, Vance had strongly displayed isolationist leanings, showing reluctance toward U.S. foreign wars and military intervention. He was also said to be skeptical of striking Iran when the war began in February.
Politico reported that while Thiel criticized the Iran war in his talk, he maintained his support for Trump and signaled an intent to shield the president. Thiel said the Cheney family — former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter, former Rep. Liz Cheney — harbors a pathological hatred of Trump in an attempt to curry favor with the International Criminal Court and avoid prosecution. He said a "sword of Damocles," in the form of the threat of ICC arrest warrants, appears to hang over the Trump administration as it wages the war in Iran.
Cheney, who served as vice president under George W. Bush, has long faced questions over ICC prosecution and accountability for war crimes in connection with the Iraq war and other matters. Thiel thus cast the harsh criticism directed at Trump by fellow Republicans, including Liz Cheney, not as political conflict but as the price of standing up to the ICC. A co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, Thiel is regarded as the first major technology investor to endorse Trump, in 2016.