Peter Thiel disapproves of Iran war in notable break with Trump: We should not have done it
Billionaire investor Peter Thiel does not think the US should have started the war with Iran – a notable break from one of President Trump’s most loyal supporters less than two weeks ahead of the midterm elections. The Palantir and PayPal co-founder worth $37 billion, according to Forbes, reportedly revealed his disapproval in remarks during a private event on Oct.12 as part of a lecture series he was giving in Nashville.“I’m skeptical of [the war], I think we should not have done it,” Thiel said in audio recordings obtained by Politico.
“There were a lot of mistakes that were made.”“Maybe we don’t have the hard power.Maybe we’re going to lose the soft power war,” he added.Thiel made clear throughout the lecture that he is strongly against neoconservatives and wars in the Middle East, and that he is still supportive of Trump, according to the report.His comments mark one of the strongest criticisms from a close Trump ally of the president’s operations in Iran, which began in February. Thiel was the first prominent Silicon Valley figure to back Trump in the 2016 presidential election.
He donated $1.25 million to Trump’s campaign at the time and gave a speech at the Republican National Convention.Republicans are fighting to hold onto congressional seats in the highly-anticipated midterms, as Americans increasingly report economic anxiety. The Strait of Hormuz crisis in the Middle East has sent global energy costs surging, keeping gasoline prices above $4 a gallon and threatening to raise prices on everything from food and apparel to furniture and toys. In his Nashville lecture, the techie investor also sounded the alarm over the powers of the International Criminal Court, nodding to comments from members of former President George W.Bush’s administration like the late Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, Politico reported. “I read the Cheney family’s Trump derangement syndrome as an attempt to buy favor with the [International Crimi...