ASPEN, COLORADO — Billionaire Peter Thiel stunned a largely liberal audience Tuesday at the Aspen Institute's Ideas Festival with a warning that democratic socialists are taking over the Democratic Party.During a panel discussion about the direction of humanity, Thiel lamented the cultural, technological and economic "stagnation" that has taken place in recent years, something he considered to be "very destabilizing" in the long term.He argued that the "haywire" effects of that stagnation trickled into politics.BLACKROCK CEO LARRY FINK 'WORRIED' ABOUT NYC UNDER MAMDANI, FLOATS INVESTING ELSEWHERE UNDER WEAKER CONDITIONSBillionaire Peter Thiel appeared at the Aspen Institute's Ideas Festival in Aspen, Colorado on Tuesday, June 30, 2026.(Joseph A.
Wulfsohn/Fox News Digital)"My generation was the first one where things felt really stuck," Thiel said."I think millennials are doing less well than their boomer parents.
It's even more deeply felt in Gen Z." "And then, if we think about this in political terms, it's what's pushing us to try to find solutions outside this sort of very narrow, very narrow box," he continued."And then, there was the Republican version that manifested with Trump and a repudiation of Bush-neocon consensus.""And I think the Democratic version, to those of you who are, you know, the liberal Democrats in the audience, that I ask you to take more seriously, is I think there's going to be a democratic socialist takeover in the Democratic Party," Thiel said.
"And it's not just a irrational, angry outburst.It is this really, really deep frustration at this stagnation."DAVID MARCUS: THE AGE OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY BLOCKING FRINGE OUTSIDERS IS OFFICIALLY OVERNew York City Mayor Zorhan Mamdani's endorsed Democratic Socialist congressional candidates Claire Valdez, Brad Lander and Darializa Avila Chevalier all won their primary races in New York last month.
(Michael M.Santiago/Getty Images)The billionaire's comments drew audible gasps among the pro...