Friday, January 13, 2017

Not to be missed: Pieter Thiel on Donald Trump

Maureen Dowd, "Peter Thiel, Trump's Tech Pal, Explains Himself" (New York Times, January 11, 2017).
Let others tremble at the thought that Donald J. Trump may go too far. Peter Thiel worries that Mr. Trump may not go far enough.

“Everyone says Trump is going to change everything way too much,” says the famed venture capitalist, contrarian and member of the Trump transition team. “Well, maybe Trump is going to change everything way too little. That seems like the much more plausible risk to me.”

Mr. Thiel is comfortable being a walking oxymoron: He is driven to save the world from the apocalypse. Yet he helped boost the man regarded by many as a danger to the planet.

“The election had an apocalyptic feel to it,” says Mr. Thiel, wearing a gray Zegna suit and sipping white wine in a red leather booth at the Monkey Bar in Manhattan. “There was a way in which Trump was funny, so you could be apocalyptic and funny at the same time. It’s a strange combination, but it’s somehow very powerful psychologically.”


At the recent meeting of tech executives at Trump Tower — orchestrated by Mr. Thiel — the president-elect caressed Mr. Thiel’s hand so affectionately that body language experts went into a frenzy. I note that he looked uneasy being petted in front of his peers.

“I was thinking, ‘I hope this doesn’t look too weird on TV,’” he says. Read more >>
Related: Maureen Dowd, "Confirm or Deny: Peter Thiel" (New York Times, January 11, 2017). Hilarious.

[Hat tip to Sir A.S.]

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