Some of tech’s biggest names, like Elon Musk, are crowing about Donald Trump’s pick for vice president — but not all of big business immediately lined up with congratulations.
Trump chose freshman Sen. JD Vance as his running mate on Monday. Vance, who spent short stints as a venture capital investor at three firms in Silicon Valley and the Midwest, has close ties to tech and politics kingmaker Peter Thiel. Much of the initial wave of public congratulations came from men in tech with ties to Thiel, like Musk, who has known Thiel for decades.
The Trump-Vance ticket “resounds with victory,” Musk posted on X on Monday.
Some venture capitalists are similarly thrilled about Vance.
He’s “an American patriot, with the courage to fight America’s wars but the wisdom to know when to avoid them,” wrote Craft Ventures’ David Sacks on X.
Sacks, along with Thiel and Musk, is part of the “PayPal Mafia,” a group of early PayPal founders and employees who have gone on to invest and found tech companies and VC firms. Delian Asparouhov, a partner at Thiel-backed VC firm Founders Fund, posted about the news with three American flag emojis of approval.
Support for Vance also came from those who said they don’t know him personally.
“We actually have a young candidate who seems to be tech savvy. I think it’s good for the party,” Matt Murphy, a partner at Menlo Ventures, told Bloomberg.
The former US Marine broke with the traditional mainstream Republican platform by taking less orthodox stances on economic issues, such as supporting raising minimum wages and taxes on corporations.
Most notably, Vance was a vocal proponent of the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust enforcement of big tech companies. Startup investors like Vance and Thiel view breaking up Big Tech as a way to level the playing field for small tech companies edged out by their deep-pocketed, entrenched competitors.
But some business leaders opposed Trump’s decision, like billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin, a top Republican donor, the Washington Post reported. Griffin told the Post in a statement that Trump had “many good choices for Vice President, and I appreciate the thoughtful deliberation of the President and his team.”
One of Vance’s most outspoken critics was former chairman of News Corp, Rupert Murdoch. The media titan sent executives to meet with Trump to lobby against Vance and push for North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, according to a report by NOTUS.
Vance’s competition for Trump’s running mate included Florida Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Burgum. After the VP pick went public, both men expressed their support for Vance.
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