Key facts
- Peter Thiel believes it will be difficult for JD Vance or Marco Rubio to win the 2028 presidential election.
- Thiel is concerned about the potential for a democratic socialist to win the Democratic Party's nomination in 2028.
- Thiel previously donated $15 million to a super PAC supporting JD Vance's 2022 Senate campaign.
- Thiel described himself as a libertarian and a GOP megadonor.
- Thiel stated that the Democratic Party is the more important party in the U.S. establishment.
Billionaire investor Peter Thiel has expressed concerns about the Republican Party's prospects in the 2028 presidential election, even for allies like JD Vance. In an interview with Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner on the "MD Meets" podcast, Thiel stated, "I am still a Vance partisan," but added, "I worry that it will be very hard for either candidate to win."
Döpfner had asked Thiel to compare Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as potential GOP standard-bearers. Thiel, who cofounded Mithril Capital with Vance and previously donated $15 million to a super PAC supporting Vance's 2022 Senate bid, suggested that the focus on the GOP might be misplaced.
Instead, Thiel indicated he is more interested in the internal shifts within the Democratic Party. He posited that a significant Republican loss in the upcoming November elections could embolden the Democratic Party to nominate a democratic socialist, a scenario he believes has a roughly 50% chance of occurring and would be "the end of America."
Thiel described the Democratic Party as the "establishment party" and suggested that if democratic socialists take over, it would be a "much bigger deal" than a shift within the Republican Party, which he characterized as "always a little bit anti-establishment."