Meet the Peter Thiel acolytes in Donald Trump’s 2nd Administration

As we approach the third week of Donald Trump’s 2nd presidential term, it is once again clear that Peter Thiel is having an outsized influence on the administration.

Peter Thiel is the infamous co-founder of Palantir, the “private” surveillance firm with a long history of involvement and collaboration with the CIA. Thiel is also a Steering Committee Member of the Bilderberg Group, the infamously secretive group which represents the interests of the hidden ruling class.

Now, in the second Trump administration, Thiel’s influence is more visible than ever as numerous associates and acolytes of his are set to play various influential roles.

I’ve previously reported how Thiel and others in the right-wing of Big Tech decided to go all-in on Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign. They argued that this was a defensive move to protect their industries from the encroachment of the Biden/Harris administration. However, despite the hesitance of many of the Silicon Valley CEO’s to embrace Trump in 2016 and 2020, Thiel has a long history of supporting the two-time president.

In 2016, Thiel donated $1.25 million to Donald Trump’s first presidential campaign. Despite claiming to have tired of politics and not publicly supporting Trump in 2020 and 2024, Thiel was absolutely a behind-the-scenes advocate for a 2nd Trump term.

While speaking at the All In Summit in early October 2024, Thiel claimed that while he was not donating money to any political candidate, he was still supporting Donald Trump and now-Vice President JD Vance “in every other way possible”.

“I am still very strongly pro-Trump, pro-J.D.,” Thiel said.

Despite his years long embrace of Donald Trump, it is also worth noting that Thiel collaborated with the Biden administration. In 2021, I reported on how the Biden administration was receiving criticism for continuing Trump’s plans for a border wall in the form of a “virtual” or biometric wall.

One of the contractors for the virtual wall was Anduril Industries, founded by Trump donor Palmer Luckey with funding from Peter Thiel. The message was clear — whether with Trump, Biden, or Harris the U.S. is getting a biometric surveillance state with Digital IDs.

Fast forward to 2025, and now that Trump and Vance are occupying the White House, numerous Thiel-affiliated companies are expected to see a big boost in financial revenue.

For example, recently Thiel’s Palantir and Anduril, as well as SpaceX and OpenAI, announced a partnership on U.S. military contracts. The move marks the latest efforts by the Technocrats to replace the old guard of the Military Industrial Complex — companies like Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and Boeing.

This article is a brief look at the many Thiel-connected members of President Donald Trump’s 2nd cabinet. This list is not exhaustive and should be updated with time as more disciples of the Thielverse come into play.

Vice President J.D. Vance

Despite not giving directly to the 2024 Trump campaign, Thiel has gained well-deserved scrutiny for his role in financing the rise of Vice President J.D. Vance.

Vance, the 40-year-old former Ohio Senator, was in attendance at David Sacks’ June 2024 fundraiser for Trump. Sacks is the partner of Craft Ventures, the former Chief Operating Officer of PayPal.

According to “two people with knowledge of the exchange”, during the June event Trump “informally polled the room” regarding who he should choose for his Vice Presidential running mate. David Sacks, Chamath Palihapitiya, and others all told Trump he should choose Vance. Elon Musk also reportedly encouraged Trump to pick Vance. A few weeks later at the Republican National Convention that’s exactly what Donald Trump did.

Thiel and Vance have an extensive relationship. Vance claims that after hearing Peter Thiel deliver a speech at Yale Law School in 2011 he was inspired to pursue a career in big tech firms. He started as a junior investor with the Thiel-backed Mithril Capital in 2016.

Vance briefly worked at biotechnology firm Circuit Therapeutics, a move which then-CEO Frederic Moll told the NY Times was a “favor to Peter.” In 2019, Vance would found his own venture firm, Narya Capital, with financial backing from the former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, the billionaire investor Marc Andreessen, and, of course, Peter Thiel.

When Vance announced his run for Ohio Senator, Peter Thiel was there and gave $15 million to the campaign. With this money Vance was able to secure a victory and within two years he was on the way to the White House with the full support of Thiel and other technocrats.

Elon Musk

While Musk is a powerful and influential technocrat in his own right — choosing to maintain a more public personality than that of Thiel — he and Thiel have their own history of collaboration.

Elon Musk and Peter Thiel have been friends for more than two decades and both men received massive financial wealth from their co-founding of PayPal. Thiel has also been a prominent investor in Musk’s various ventures, including Neuralink.

Musk and Peter Thiel also co-founded “America PAC” as their vehicle to support Trump’s return to the White House. In July 2024 it was initially reported that Musk would invest $45 million a month into the Trump campaign. In the end, Musk would give nearly $75 million to the PAC.

As promised, Trump nominated Musk to lead the “Department of Government Efficiency”. While the idea of reducing government waste and increasing efficiency is an appealing proposition, it should also be noted that Musk’s talk of efficiency is reminiscent of the little known Efficiency Movement which predated the more well-known Technocracy movement.

The Efficiency Movement sought to identify and eliminate waste in all areas of the economy and society, and to develop and implement “best practices”. Supporters of the movement included Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller. Rockefeller was a proponent of efficiency, stating, “To help an inefficient, ill-located, unnecessary school is a waste …it is highly probable that enough money has been squandered on unwise educational projects to have built up a national system of higher education adequate to our needs, if the money had been properly directed to that end.”

Is the goal of Trump and Elon to make government more efficient to serve the people? Or, is the goal to finally fulfill the dream of the original technocrats and eliminate the political and business classes in favor of “machines” (Artificial Intelligence), centrally planning, and managing society? Time will tell.

David Sacks

David Sacks is most well-known for his involvement in the early days of PayPal, serving as the COO with Thiel as the CEO. He is considered a member of the so-called “PayPal Mafia”, a name given to the founders of PayPal who later founded numerous tech companies, including Tesla, LinkedIn, Palantir Technologies, SpaceX, YouTube, and Yelp.

In 1998, Thiel and Sacks co-authored the book, The Diversity Myth: Multiculturalism and Political Intolerance on Campus, arguing that political correctness has harmed the college education system and academia in general. The book expanded on the pair’s writings in The Stanford Review, a student-run newspaper founded by Thiel and Sacks in 1987. Peter Thiel and Sacks would later apologize for statements made in the book which belittled rape.

In June 2024, Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya hosted a fundraiser for Trump at Sacks’ home in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco. The meeting netted the Trump campaign $12 million after Trump reportedly said he would be “the crypto president”. It was this dinner where the billionaires told Trump he should choose Vance as his running mate.

Shortly after his victory in the 2024 election, Trump rewarded Sacks for his loyalty by appointing him as the “AI and Crypto Czar”. In this position Sacks is expected to greatly influence the U.S. government’s policies on cryptocurrency, and the advancement of AI.

Howard Lutnick

Howard Lutnick is the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald investment firm and has become a vocal proponent for Bitcoin in the last couple years.

Lutnick is also an investor in anti-ESG Strive Asset Management, which was founded by Vivek Ramaswamy. Peter Thiel, the Founders Fund, and J.D. Vance’s Narya Capital also contributed to Strive’s $30 million funding round.

Lutnick is also a part owner of video platform Rumble, founded by Chris Pavlovski. In December 2021, Pavlovski announced his intention to take Rumble public by combining forces with CF Acquisition Corp, a division of the Lutnick’s Cantor Fitzgerald. The deal was completed by September 2022 with CF Acquisition Corp providing “approximately $400 million in gross proceeds” to help “build out Rumble’s independent infrastructure”.

“With its massive growth in users and engagement, this is an exciting time for Rumble to become public. I am excited to see ‘RUM’ shares trading in the marketplace,” Lutnick said at the time of the deal.

Following Rumble becoming a publicly traded company, the top institutional share holders include Cantor Fitzgerald, Vanguard Group, BlackRock, State Street, and Rockefeller Capital Management, among others.

In August 2024 I reported on Howard Lutnick’s appearance at the 2024 Bitcoin Nashville event and his involvement in the Bitcoin community more broadly. During his own speech at Bitcoin Nashville, Trump called Lutnick “one of the truly brilliant men of Wall Street”. That Trump sees Lutnick — one of the most high profile traders of U.S. debt and a Wall Street regular — as a brilliant man is likely a sign that Wall Street banks will continue to influence U.S. financial policy under Trump’s 2nd administration.

Lutnick was also formerly a neighbor to Jeffrey Epstein in NYC and raised millions for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 Presidential campaign.

Lutnick has spoken at the World Economic Forum’s various meetings as far back as 2016 and as recently as January 2023. At the 2023 WEF meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Lutnick participated in a panel titled, Real Estate at a Turning Point.

Another interesting facet of Lutnick’s personal story is that Cantor Fitzgerald’s offices were located in the 101st to the 105th floors of One World Trade Center. The firm lost 658 of its 960 employees due to the terrorist attack. However, Lutnick happened to be accompanying his wife as she took their son to his first day of kindergarten.

Jim O’Neill

Donald Trump has appointed Jim O’Neill as deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). O’Neill has extensive connections and collaborations with Peter Thiel.

O’Neill worked at two of Peter Thiel’s funds, Clarium Capital and Mithril Capital Management from 2012 to 2019. In 2010, he co-founded Peter Thiel‘s Thiel Fellowship. He also worked as the CEO of the Thiel Foundation from 2009 to 2012.

From 2019 to July 2021, O’Neill was the CEO of SENS Research Foundation, an organization focused on “rejuvenation”. The SENS received its initial funding from Peter Thiel in 2006 and 2008, a fact that should come as no surprise given Thiel’s own interest in fighting aging using the blood of the young.

Whitney Webb recently wrote a detailed investigation further outlining O’Neill’s connections to Thiel and how his appointment might be used to stifle Robert F. Kennedy Jr. if his nomination is confirmed in the coming weeks.

Ken Howery

Trump named Ken Howery as his pick for U.S. ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark. Howery previously served as a U.S. ambassador to Sweden, and Trump wrote that he “served our Nation brilliantly” in that role.

The connections between Howery, Peter Thiel, and the World Economic Forum run deep. Apparently, Trump sees those connections as a net positive.

Howery was another PayPal co-founder with Thiel. The pair also co-founded the venture capital fund Founders Fund.

In March 2012, the WEF named Howery a member of the Young Global Leader program. He is also a member of the Selection Committee for the World Economic Forum Technology Pioneers Program.

Howery may have been selected for the role of ambassador to Denmark to help Trump fulfill his goal of annexing Greenland. Denmark has administrative control over Greenland as part of its kingdom. Interestingly, Trump’s calls for purchasing Greenland and making it part of the United States mirrors the original Technocrats plan for the “Technate of America”, including Canada and Panama as well.

Jacob Helberg

Jacob Helberg was appointed to be undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment. Helberg donated $2 million to Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.

He is an ardent supporter of Israel and a former supporter of Democrats who has said his shift to Trump was a result of Democrats becoming “anti-Israel”. While the Democrats also support Israel and generally vote to give the nation unlimited funding and weapons stockpiles, Helberg believes they are not sufficiently obedient.

Helberg is also a senior adviser to Palantir Technologies, the private surveillance firm co-founded by Peter Thiel. Helberg also is also senior advisor to Alex Karp, Thiel’s co-founder and CEO of Palantir Technologies.

Michael Kratsios

Donald Trump has named Michael Kratsios to serve as science adviser and director of the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy. Kratsios also served in the role in the first Trump White House and the Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. Kratsios led the 1st Trump admin’s policy specialist on artificial intelligence, drones, quantum computing, and cybersecurity.

Kratsios worked for two of Peter Thiel’s funds, Thiel Capital and Clarium Capital.

Vivek Ramaswamy

Although Vivek Ramaswamy is no longer involved in DOGE, he is still in Trump’s orbit and has announced a run for Governor of Ohio. It would not be surprising to see Peter Thiel invest in his political campaign. Thiel previously invested in Ramaswamy’s fund, Strive Asset Management.

Other Influential Thiel Acolytes

Trae Stephens is a partner at venture capital firm Founders Fund, which was organized by Peter Thiel, Ken Howery, and Luke Nosek in early 2005. Stephens is also the co-founder and chair of Anduril Industries, which was funded by Peter Thiel. Finally, Stephens worked for Thiel’s Palantir Technologies. According to Bloomberg,Trump and his team have consulted with Trae Stephens.

Politico has also previously reported that Shyam Sankar, current Palantir chief technology officer, has been considered for the Pentagon’s top research and engineering job.

Finally, Blake Masters, who worked for Thiel Capital and for the Thiel Foundation, was reportedly up for nomination as Trump’s head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) at one point.

Alex Karp – The Other Palantir Founder & Bilderberg Member

Alex Karp is the co-founder of Palantir Technologies Inc. Karp co-founded Palantir with fellow technocrat Peter Thiel with the assistance of two rounds of investment from CIA’s venture capital firm In-Q-Tel.

Karp is also a steering committee member of the Bilderberg Group.

While Karp has mostly stayed out of politics in the public sphere, in 2024 he told the NYT that he was now supporting Kamala Harris. While Karp has traditionally supported Progressive politicians and described himself as a radical leftist, and Thiel has supported Conservative politicians, both men are now united in the support of the Trump administration.

While there may be real political differences between Karp and Thiel, there is not daylight between the two when it comes to Technocratic solutions. Karp recently told Fox Business how Palantir is ready and willing to help make the U.S. government “more efficient”.

Karp, Thiel, and Palantir’s Support of Genocide

Karp is also an open advocate for supporting the Zionist movement. Researcher James Corbett recently noted that, “in November of last year, Palantir issued a letter to shareholders that stressed the company’s support for Israel’s quest to ethnically cleanse Palestinians.”

“We are one of a few companies in the world to stand up and announce our support for Israel, which remains steadfast,” Karp wrote in the letter. “Palantir stands with Israel.”

Thiel has also made it clear he will not interfere in Israel’s crimes and has no qualms supplying technology which leads to civilian deaths. First, in January 2024 Palantir announced that it had signed a “strategic partnership” with the Israeli Defense Ministry to supply technology for the genocide.

In May 2024, protesters accused Thiel of complicity in ‘genocide’, blocking his vehicles for over an hour while he was speaking at the Cambridge Union. Over two hundred students gathered outside the Cambridge Union attempting to “drown out” Thiel’s talk.

When Thiel was directly questioned about his support of Israel and their use of AI technology to murder humans, he gave a rambling non-answer.

“Look again . . . I’m not . . . I’m not . . . you know, you know . . . with . . . without, without going into all the . . . you know I’m not on top of all the details of what’s going on in Israel, because my bias is to defer to Israel. It’s not for us to to second-guess every, everything. And I believe that broadly the IDF gets to decide what it wants to do, and that they’re broadly in the right and that’s, that’s sort of the perspective I come back to.”

Given that Karp and Thiel are willing to turn a blind eye to the crimes of Israel, it should come as no surprise that Trump’s 2nd cabinet is stacked with former and current associates of Thiel’s who also share this zeal for Zionism and Technocracy.

Who’s Behind Peter Thiel?

Now that we understand the depths at which Peter Thiel’s influence can be seen and felt in the Trump administration, we must ask — who exactly is influencing Peter Thiel’s actions and thinking?

In my next article I will dive deeper into the role that Curtis Yarvin aka Mencius Moldbug has played in influencing Peter Thiel and the MAGA movement in general. While the majority of Trump supporters and mainstream Republicans might not be aware of the philosophy of this man, his thinking continues to inspire and inform the actions of the Technocrats like Peter Thiel, J.D. Vance, and Marc Andreesen.